Crouching tiger and rejoice jackals:
Scholarly vs predatory Open Access journals.
Jasimudeen S. & Vimal Kumar V.
Research Scholars
School of Social Sciences
Mahatma Gandhi University

“Academic Racketeering”
Rapid rise of predatory journals,
Publications taking large fees without providing robust
editorial or publishing services,
Predatory journals attract authors through aggressive
marketing and spam emails, promising quick review and
open access publication for a price.

The preys
Motive is financial gain, and they are corrupting the
communication of science,
Their main victims are institutions and researchers in low
and middle income countries, and the time has come to act
rather than simply to decry them.

Features of predatory journals
Insufficient contact information,
Broad area of subject to attract more articles (Journal of Social Sciences),
Journals treat two or more fields of study together (e.g. International Journal of
Business, Humanities and Technology),
Sky high claims like “leading publisher”,
Fake/similar ISSN and absence of article DOI.

Reasons behind the growth of predatory journals
The introduction of academic performance indicator (API)
by the UGC,
The focus on quantity over quality,
Lack of publishing avenues; absence of higher education
institutions in scholarly publishing industry,
Lack of national machinery to monitor scholarly
publishing industry,

Publication experience with a predatory journal
The manuscript, entitled “Deconstructing Access Points” was submitted on January 29th, 2009, to
The Open Information Science Journal (TOISCIJ),
a journal that claims to enforce peer-review.
http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2009/06/10/nonsense-for-dollars/
Paper was generated using Scigen
Paper was accepted and asked for submission fee
The acceptance letter read: This is to inform you that your submitted article has been accepted for publication after peer-
reviewing process in TOISCIJ. I would be highly grateful to you if you please fill and sign the attached fee form and covering letter
and send them back via email as soon as possible to avoid further delay in publication.

Fake manuscript

Paper submission

Asking advancement payment

Quick publishing process !!

Beware of predatory journals
Is the publisher listed in any blacklist (Beall’s List),
Check in any whitelist like DOAJ,
Searching for the journal in databases (PubMedCentral, Web of
Science),
Credible journals follow transparency in editorial and peer
review processes.

Conclusion
Availability of National and international whitelist of
journals,
Availability of more Open Access journals from research
centres and higher education institutions,
Need more generous funding to initiate Open Access
journals,
Need to encourage continuous (frequency) journals to
accommodate more articles.