Abstract
Valuable research works are getting wasted by publishing them in so called, fake journals (pseudo journals, hijacked or predatory journals). Fake journals are the journals which do not perform peer review or minimal language editing in the name of peer review. Unaware of negative consequences of publishing in fake journals, budding or novice academician/clinician/researcher continue to fall prey for them. Present scenario, forced them to get their valuable research published for promotion, pay hike, academic or research reputation, etc. But, they boast themselves by publishing them in fake journals with fake metrics. By making publication in fake journals, only the publishers make profit and pseudo enhance the bio-data of novice academician. It is becoming a big business. In this short communication, we have highlighted the most common prevalent issue among the novice or budding academician.
KEYWORDS: Fake journal, genuine publication, hijacked journal, predatory journals, predatory publishers, pseudo publishing
PRESSURE TO PUBLISH
Work not documented and reported means simply not performed. So, if any research is performed, then it should be published. Dissemination of research work through publication is the ultimate end of research. The scientific community will recognize an academician/researcher/clinician only when they publish their research work. If they do not publish, they are considered as academically and clinically dead. At present, promotions, research funding, travel grant, and scholarships are based on their research publication. Even an academician can be demoted if they fail to produce required publication during their term as required by regulatory bodies such as University Grants Commission, Medical Council of India (MCI), Pharmacy Council of India, etc. These “force to publish” situations had landed many novice academicians, clinicians, and researchers into fake journals.
FAKE AND PREDATORY JOURNALS
The journals that do not conduct genuine peer review are considered as fake journals. They perform fake peer review or minimal peer review (only language check). Peer review acts as the censor board for scientific publication. Without peer review, anything can be published without control. These published materials will act as the evidence in the scientific world. Thus, baseless findings and reports were considered as the evidence for technical and medical researches, which ultimately make every useful findings baseless. The journals that prey on academician/clinician/researcher for their research findings are also called as predatory journals by Jeffrey Beall. He was an academic librarian and researcher at the University of Colorado in Denver. From 2008, he started collecting the list of predatory journals after critically analyzing them. From 2011, he began publishing them in his blog, www.scholarlyoa.com, and continued till January 15, 2017, until he was forced to remove them. The apposition by powerful predatory publisher companies rose against him and started publishing facts (whether the facts are genuine or fake is not confirmed) against him in www.scholarlyoa.net. But now many of his followers have taken the job of creating awareness about predatory journals and publication through various sites such as www.beallslist.weebly.com or www.predatoryjournals.com. Researchers are advised to check whether their target journal is listed under predatory journal or publisher list before submitting their valuable research. Researcher should not self-boast after making their publication in fake journals. On the contrary, they should feel ashamed of these publications. These could tarnish the reputation of an academician/clinician/researcher. Their valued research should be published only in recognized and reputed genuine peer-reviewed journals. Peer-reviewed publication can be compared to the awarded degrees. Peer review can be compared to the evaluation system adopted by the governing system for awarding degrees. Degree cannot be purchased, if so, then it becomes invalid; this is similar to genuine peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed publications.
FAKE JOURNAL METRICS
Most of the valued are carried away by the misleading metrics such as Scientific Journal Impact Factor (http://sjifactor.com/), Global Impact Factor (http://globalimpactfactor.com/), and Universal Impact Factor (http://uifactor.blogspot.in/, http://universaljournalimpactfactor.blogspot.in/). These are the nonsense metrics and they even do not have their own websites, and use blogspot.in instead. Indian academicians/researchers/clinicians should not publish in the journals endorsed by these journal metrics. In India, MCI considers the journal while evaluating medical staffs for promotion on the basis of publication in Index Copernicus indexed journal. They use Copernicus metric value (http://en.indexcopernicus.com/) to evaluate the journal indexed by them. Another reputable fake metric is Citefactor (http://www.citefactor.org/). They use fancy and novel terms such as “Real Time Impact Factor” and “Journal Impact Factor.”[1] Genuine academicians/researchers/clinicians should not self-boast with these fake metrics. There is no real benefit to scientific community or themselves. On the contrary, it will tarnish the name of the academician/researcher/clinician and their affiliated institute.[2,3]
GENUINE JOURNAL METRICS
However, Institute for Scientific Information does the genuine work of evaluating journals by librarians and information scientists. They have been evaluating for the past 75 years by compiling Science Citation Index, Social Science Citation Index, and Arts and Humanities Citation Index and publishing Journal Citation Reports by Clarivate Analytics, previously the Intellectual Property and Science business of Thomson Reuters, (https://clarivate.com/products/journal-citation-reports/) since 1975.[4] Recent years have seen the introduction of Science Citation Index Expanded and Emerging Sources Citation Index to cover most of the standard scientific journals under Web of Science core collections (https://webofknowledge.com/).
PLEDGE FROM ACADEMIC COMMUNITY
Recent research reports confirm that India is leading in publishing predatory journals.[5] We become a part of them without our deep knowledge by not educating our students and colleagues regarding fake and predatory publishing. We, the academic community, should take pledge that we will not allow our students to publish their valued research in those fake and predatory journals. Publishing in fake journals makes a person fake. Be genuine and make genuine peer-reviewed publications.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
The contributing author is an editorial board member of Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy Journal (POTJ). In addition to that, the author has few publications in Indian Journal of Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy, POTJ, and International Journal of Physiotherapy and Research which may be predatory journals.
Acknowledgements
The contents under the subtitle, “Fake journal metrics” and “Genuine journal metrics” were published in the simultaneous publications by the author to disseminate this message to a wider audience. Such publications include: (1) Call for the scientific and peer-reviewed publication among Indian physiotherapists: The need of the hour. Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy Journal 2017;10:137-8; (2) Journal Publishing: Separating the wheat from the chaff. PHYSIOTIMES 2017, (3) An Indian physiotherapist’s suggestions to keep out of fake journals. PJIAP 2018, (4) The need for Indian physiotherapy research publications: Understanding journalology and predatory journals. AMHS 2018.
REFERENCES
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