Q: How should I deal with an unreasonable APC claim made by a predatory journal?

Detailed Question -

I was invited by a journal to publish an essay in about 2 pages for the journal’s initial issue. As it was an open journal, I declared that I would not pay any money, and sent a miscellaneous piece of writing (essay) about a kind of medical perspective. 1 month later, I received an invoice for US$3600 by email and my essay had been uploaded as Editorial on the journal’s homepage.

I had just sent my writing directly to an editor instead of submitting through the journal’s manuscript submission window. On the journal homepage, the APC is mentioned as US$1800.

I made an investigation and found that this journal is a predatory journal listed on the Beall’s list. They have been sending me the invoice about once a week.

In this case, should I just ignore and leave the matter without response, or should I request to withdraw my writing and explain that I cannot pay anything due to the prehistory of the matter? (Though maybe they would say that a withdrawal is not acceptable.)

If the homepage is closed, it will not affect me as the writings is not a paper and just an essay.

1 Answer to this question
Answer:

You should have done a background check before submitting your essay to the journal. I don't think the journal will agree to pull down your paper. However, you can give it a shot since you would not want to be associated with a predatory journal. Write to the journal saying that you will not pay anything and you want your essay unpublished. Since you had already made it clear at the beginning that you will not make any payment, they cannot coerce into paying. 

If the journal does not pull down your essay, there's not much you can do about it. You should then just ignore the emails asking for payment and stop communicating with the journal altogether.

However, do not, under any circumstance, include this editorial as a publication in your CV or researcher profile as any kind of association with a predatory publisher can affect your credibility and reputation as a researcher. 

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