Q: How do I deal with these coercive tactics by a predatory journal?

Detailed Question -

The invitation from an open access (OA) journal asked me to submit articles directly as a reply to their email rather than on the website. After accepting the article, they charged a huge fee and said that I cannot withdraw until I pay a huge withdrawal penalty. I have not signed any copyright authorization form. The legal representative has sent me several emails asking me to pay and settle the issue, else they will initiate legal procedures. I even received a phone call from an 'unknown number' asking me to settle the issue or they will initiate procedures. They claim that they have a recorded back-up of the telephonic conversation.

Investigation has revealed that this journal is predatory and most editors mentioned on the website deny any association. The editor-in-chief (EiC) also has asked me to ignore them. What should I do?

3 Answers to this question
Answer:

Hello, Anil. Firstly, welcome to the forum. You may have come here through an unfortunate situation, but it’s a relatively common one these days, and we should hopefully be able to help you with this.

Having said that, you have done two good – nay, great – things already. One, you haven’t transferred the copyright to them. Two, you haven’t given in so far – and they have already hurled a lot at you. In fact, they have tried most of the typical tactics predatory journals use to coerce authors: threats of withdrawal penalty, use of legal representatives, threats of initiating legal action, phone calls from unknown numbers to induce fear… The list goes on.

You should continue holding your ground. They seem to have exhausted most of the ammunition they typically employ. The last and final thing they’ll probably do is to go ahead and publish the manuscript anyway, as they can’t seem to have you yield in any other way. You may have to consider whether you are okay with foregoing the manuscript. While it would have been published, as it was published in a predatory journal, it would not add any credentials to your CV. However, in most cases, this is a threat they are not likely to proceed with. So, if you insist that you will not pay or bow to any of their other tactics, they should finally leave you and your manuscript be.

What you should also do though is to say you will consider the manuscript withdrawn if you don’t hear of its withdrawal by a certain date. Additionally, you may rope in a colleague or senior with some experience in dealing with predatory journals – although you seem to have enough reserves of your own.

This should probably work. For the future, you may decide to keep this checklist handy: 10 Point checklist to identify predatory publishers

Additionally, it may help to go through the following resources:

All the best for resolving this – and soon!

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Answer:

Dear Mr Syed

Many thanks for your response. Yes, I am not going to yield to any of their demands. I have done a lot of background work. This Journals name is included in the list of predatory journals, something that I found out later. I have sought advice from many of my colleagues including my university and they agree with my views

Many thanks again

Best Regards

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Answer:

You are welcome, Anil. And all the best again!

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