{"id":3528,"date":"2020-06-24T10:03:08","date_gmt":"2020-06-24T10:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/the-scientific-predator-has-evolved-heres-how-you-can-fight-back\/"},"modified":"2025-01-15T06:29:47","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T06:29:47","slug":"the-scientific-predator-has-evolved-heres-how-you-can-fight-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/the-scientific-predator-has-evolved-heres-how-you-can-fight-back","title":{"rendered":"The scientific predator has evolved – here’s how you can fight back"},"content":{"rendered":"

[This post is co-authored by Irfan Syed<\/a><\/b> and Simon Linacre<\/a><\/b>. Simon Linacre is the Director of International Marketing & Development at Cabells, where he focuses on growing international markets and new product development. He is passionate about helping authors get published and has delivered over a hundred talks, sharing useful publication tips for researchers.]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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How do you identify a predatory journal? Easy, look up your spam folder \u2013 say seasoned researchers.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Actually, this \u2018initial indicator\u2019 is often the key to identifying a predatory journal. Predatory publishers send researchers frequent emails soliciting manuscripts and promising acceptance \u2013 messages that, thanks to the email service provider\u2019s parameters, usually go straight to junk mail. Some cleverly disguised ones do make it to the inbox though, and sometimes, unwary researchers click one of these mails, unleashing the predator and an all-too familiar sequence of events: Researcher sends manuscript. Receives quick acceptance often without a peer review. Signs off copyright. Receives staggeringly large invoice. Is unable to pay. Asks to withdraw. Receives equally heavy withdrawal invoice \u2013 and threats. <\/i>The cycle continues, the publisher getting incrementally coercive, the researcher increasingly frustrated.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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What makes a predator<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The term predatory journal<\/b> was coined by Jeffrey Beall, former Scholarly Initiatives Librarian at the University of Denver, Colorado, in 2010, when he launched his eponymous list (now archived<\/a><\/span><\/span>) of fake scientific journals, with an aim to educate the scientific community. The term was supposed to mirror the guile of carnivores in the wild: targeting the weak, launching a surprise ambush, and effecting a merciless finish.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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A more academic definition<\/a><\/span><\/span> might be: \u201cEntities that prioritize self-interest at the expense of scholarship and are characterized by false or misleading information, deviation from best editorial and publication practices, a lack of transparency, and\/or the use of aggressive and indiscriminate solicitation practices.\u201d<\/i> In other words, journals that put commerce before science.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Dubious scientific journals have existed since the 1980s. They were born to lend an easy passage out of the arduous road to acceptance laid by top-rung journals. Recently, they have received a boost from the rise of the open access (OA) movement, which seeks to shift the balance of power towards the researcher. However, with revenues now accruing from the author side, new researchers pressured by a \u2018publish or perish\u2019 culture have proved easy targets for predatory publishers that exploit the OA publishing model.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The new face of predation<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Today, academia faces another threat, a new predator in scientific communications \u2013 predatory author services<\/b>.<\/span> The dangers of using predatory author services can be just as acute as those of predatory journals. Authors who pay for such services are risking the abuse of any funding they have received by in turn funding potentially criminal activity. Such predatory author services may not be equipped to make quality edits to an author\u2019s paper \u2013 incorrect edits, changes in the author\u2019s intended meaning, and unidentified errors may adversely affect the author\u2019s manuscript. Many authors choose such services to improve their articles and increase their chances of acceptance in high-quality journals, but they are very likely to be disappointed in light of the quality of services they receive.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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So, the issue of predatory authors services is just as problematic as it is with predatory journals. Despite the efforts of industry bodies such as COPE, it seems there are new players entering the market and even advertising on social media platforms such as Facebook. More worryingly, examples of these predatory services seem to include a veneer of sophistication hitherto not seen before, including well-designed websites, live online chat features, and direct calling. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Spotting a predatory author service<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The good news is that these services bear many of the traits of predatory journals<\/a>, and can be identified with a little background research.\u00a0Here are some tips on how to separate predatory author services from professional operations such as Cactus\u2019 Editage<\/a>:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n