Especially for early stage researchers the landscape for academic publications tends to be confusing. New Journals and publishers come up every week. A particular problem is the increasing number of dubious journals, also called "predatory journals", which aggressively advertise their 'services'. They sometimes even deceive experienced academics. Not only do they harm to individual academics, but to science in general by spreading dubious science ("fake science").
In an online meeting and training for OeAD scholarship holders on June 25 2020, Dr. Leonhard Suchenwirth (Vienna University of Technology/TU Wien) provided some examples and insights into the phenomenon of "predatory journals" and how to best avoid them. In his presentation, Suchenwirth is going outlined some of the features and their practices that are primarily aimed at benefiting from mass publications without considering the scientific quality. In general, these journals are not listed in a reputable academic catalog but publishers often try to fake or imitate so-called "impact factors" and other quality criteria of reputable journals in order to attract authors. They promise to publish articles within a very short time but without quality control and at considerable costs. Authors who publish with such journals not only waste their money but they can also damage their academic reputation. Dr. Suchwirth gave recommendations how to avoid "predatory publishers", including some useful links (see links below).
Following the presentation, the OEAD scholarship holders asked questions and they described their own negative experiences with “predatory journals” and dubious publishers. A student from Nigeria shared his experience with a untrustworthy publisher he contacted in his naivety for a first publication. When the student wanted to withdraw his article, the publisher asked for high fees. Another student from India reported about dubious publishers in his home country. The student had bad experiences with publishers who asked for high service fees for proof-reading, too. Other students who took part in the online meeting and who are at the beginning of their scientific career profited from the exchange. They hope to avoid similar problems in the future.
Dr. Leonhard Suchenwirth is a subject librarian at the library of TU Vienna. He holds a Diploma in Geography from the University of Vienna and a Doctoral Degree from the Technical University of Berlin. Previously, he worked as a GIS specialist for GIZ and UNODC among others.
further Information:
https://ub.uni-graz.at/en/services/publication-services/fake-journals/