Written by Kevin Liu
Spoon Feed
Predatory journals are proliferating, exploiting researchers and undermining scientific integrity. Vigilance, mentorship, and institutional support are essential to protect authors and uphold scientific integrity.
To catch a predator: journal hunting
Publications share research, advance medical knowledge, and establish professional credibility with peer-reviewed articles, which are the backbone of evidence-based medicine. As we move towards more open-access, author-pays publication models, predatory journals have exploded in scope and sophistication, making it more important to be aware of the signs of a predatory journal.
The article provides a website (ThinkCheckSubmit.org) that includes a checklist of conditions to evaluate a publication. Chief among them include:
- Have you read any articles in the journal before?
- Is it easy to discover the latest papers in the journal?
- Can you contact the publisher by telephone, email, or post?
- Does the website mention whether the process involves independent/external reviewers and how many reviewers per paper?
- The journal doesn’t guarantee acceptance or a very short peer review time.
- Will your work be indexed/archived?
- Does the publisher use persistent digital identifiers?
- Does the journal site explain what the fees are for and when they will be charged?
- Do the publishers have a clear license policy?
- Is the publisher a current member of a recognized industry initiative?
How does this change my practice?
Unfortunately, publications are a metric used to determine promotion within an academic medical center, and it can be frustrating and challenging to get published. Predatory journals are very well aware of this, as they account for 90% of my spam emails. The article stops short of naming these predatory journals, and it may be easier to identify the trustworthy journals out of the thousands of journals that exist now. I will be creating a list to share with hospital staff and housestaff.
Source
Predatory Journals: What Can We Do to Protect Their Prey? JAMA. 2025 Mar 4;333(9):761-762. doi: 10.1001/jama.2024.27514. PMID: 39761599
