Predatory publishing

Thousands of budding researchers and academics are unwitting victims of predatory publishers. After authors pay upfront, they receive little of what the publishers promise them. And many more desperate doctoral candidates and academics trying to earn tenure willingly turn to these shady publishing options because the competition for prestigious positions is intensifying. Universities often look the other way, and academic rigor suffers.

After teaching for several years in a small university, Mukesh was eager to have his finance theory published in an academic journal. He hoped to boost his chances of moving to a prestigious university and a more rewarding career. He knew that Ph.D. teaching jobs were hard to come by and so was publishing in leading academic journals.

Mukesh received a flattering email from an academic publisher, The Journal of Finance and Economics saying he could have his theory published in the journal for $495. The publication promised him the services of industry-respected reviewers; an editorial staff; Google, Scopus and Web of Science indexing; reference validation; and much more. For an additional $1,500, the journal’s academic conference would invite Mukesh to present his paper with influential researchers in his field. Mukesh submitted his paper with a check for $1,995. He was overjoyed about the promise of finally being published in a respected journal and presenting to a conference of peers.

However, Mukesh faced a major problem. The Journal of Economics and Finance is an esteemed Springer publication. The similar-sounding Journal of Finance and Economics, is a less-than-legitimate journal — one of many thousands in the predatory publishing industry.

Many budding researchers and academics, like Mukesh (in this fictitious case), pay these bogus journals upfront but receive little of what is promised them — from editorial services and reviewers, to conferences without leading experts as presenters. What’s worse, many more academics knowingly turn to these shady publishing options as competition for prestigious teaching and research positions intensifies. These conditions entice desperate doctoral candidates to seek out any shortcuts available to them and help proliferate more than 10,000 fraudulent journals containing hundreds of thousands of articles of questionable technical and editorial rigor. (See Many Academics Are Eager to Publish in Worthless Journals, by Gina Kolata, The New York Times, Oct. 30, 2017.)

The competition for ever-shrinking, prestigious, tenure-track teaching and research positions has become hyper-intense. Adding to the challenge is the shrinking pot of federal and private grant money for doctoral candidates to conduct that research. Academics depend on published scholarly research to enhance their reputations and promotion potential; the universities where they teach rely as well on that published research to attract students and bolster endowments and sponsorships. The situation is ripe for fraud.

Rise of ‘open-access publishing’

Established professional journals require weeks or months of peer reviews and rigorous editorial revisions before articles meet standards. Nonsubscribers can read articles and papers only if they pay these journals.

In “open-access publishing” (OAP) — the flip side of the traditional journal publishing revenue model — authors pay to be published, and the articles are free to anyone. Because OAP revenue relies heavily on author-subsidized payments, and readers to a lesser extent, publishing in an OAP journal can run between $1,500 to $3,000 or more. (See A Scholarly Sting Operation Shines a Light on ‘Predatory’ Journals, by Gina Kolata, The New York Times, March 22, 2017.)

Predatory publishing and empty promises

Most predatory journals — the dark side of OAP — are based in developing countries, especially continental Asia, India, Pakistan and Nigeria. (See Practices of quality and trustworthiness in scholarly communication: A case from Pakistan, by Kanwal Ameen, Learned Publishing, Wiley Online Library, April 2017.) The fraudulent, predatory OAP publishing model lacks editorial and content quality, peer/expert review and ethics controls that respected scholastic journals embrace.

Predatory publishing is pseudo-scholastic fraud that can have serious consequences. Such publications exploit academic authors and dilute the validity of bona fide research, ignore the importance of the repeatability of research results and, in some cases (in the biomedicine and engineering fields, for example), can threaten the health and safety of the public.

Blind eye to faculty publishing in predatory journals

Predatory publishing exploits the “publish or perish” mantra that for decades has echoed in the halls of academia. The practice is growing rapidly in emerging economies, especially in Asia and Africa, where the majority of fraudulent scholastic articles are published. The intense pressure to establish published scholastic credentials through legitimate and respected academic journals creates opportunities, and perhaps the motivation, for cutting corners and side-stepping ethical and legal publishing practices.

In one example, a university presented a researcher with the dean’s research award for multiple articles that predatory publications published. Tenure and promotion rely in part on such awards, and those awards sit upon a foundation built from articles published in academic journals. In another instance, one researcher was celebrated publicly for being named the editor of a journal that was known as a predatory publisher. (See When most faculty publish in predatory journals, does the school become ‘complicit?’ by Derek Pyne, Retraction Watch.)

When universities turn a blind eye to faculty publishing in predatory journals, their gilded reputations as institutions of higher learning become tarnished as they sacrifice academic integrity for the temporary glitter of outward appearances to attract grants and donors. “When hundreds of thousands of publications appear in predatory journals, it stretches credulity to believe all the authors and universities they work for are victims,” Pyne says in an interview. (See Pyne: Are Universities Complicit in Predatory Publishing? by Derek Pyne, in Ottawa Citizen, April 5, 2017.)

Anatomy of a predatory publishing sting operation

Dr. Anna O. Szust (real name and position: Katarzyna Pisanski, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Lyon, Saint-Etienne, France; “oszust” is Polish for “fraudster”) created a bogus résumé, when she was a research associate at the University of Sussex School of Psychology, that listed phony degrees, experience, publications and publishers. She then applied for editorial positions at 360 randomly selected OAP journals — 48 of which accepted her for the position — and four awarded her the editor-in-chief position. (See Predatory Journals Recruit Fake Editor, by Piotr Sorokowski et al., Nature, March 22, 2017.) The larger percentage of legitimate OAP journals rejected her phony qualifications outright.

One of the predatory journals actually invited her to start a new journal and serve as its editor, while earning 30 percent of the profits. Another suggested she organize a conference; the journal offered her 40 percent of the proceeds and said it would later publish speakers’ papers.

After Pisanski proved the existence of these predatory publishers, “Dr. Szust” wanted to withdraw her application for the editor position from the journals that had blindly accepted her. That was a near-impossible task because she was listed on the editorial boards of nearly one dozen of those predatory journals. Dr. Szust was even listed as an editor for a journal to which she didn’t apply.

Prosecuting predatory publishers

In early April 2019, a federal judge in Nevada ruled that Omics International, an Indian publisher of several hundred predatory scholarly journals, violated fair business practices and granted the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which brought the charges, a $50 million judgment. The amount represented revenue Omics generated from scammed authors and conference presenters between Aug. 25, 2011, and July 31, 2017. FTC attorneys will be aggressively tracking down Omics International assets in the U.S. (See The Price for ‘Predatory’ Publishing? $50 million, by Gina Kolata, The New York Times, April 3, 2019.)

Predatory publishing exploits the 'publish or perish' mantra that for decades has echoed in the halls of academia.

Evil partner: predatory conferences

Predatory conferences go hand-in-hand with predatory publishers. A journal accepts a researcher’s paper for publication, and often the natural follow-up is that the researcher will present the paper at a conference. However, researchers and academics still have to fiercely compete for the few speaking slots at prestigious conferences.

Predatory conferences now outnumber legitimate conferences organized by bona fide scholarly associations and societies. (See Predatory Conferences Now Outnumber Official Scholarly Events, by Jack Grove, The World University Rankings.) The problem is an especially pressing one for the physical sciences, though all fields are battling the influence of predatory conferences, most of which are held in Europe, Asia and Africa.

A predatory conference looks like this

The World Academy of Science, Engineering, and Technology (WASET) sponsored the 19th International Conference on Political Psychology in September 2017 in Copenhagen. The event was promoted as an “interdisciplinary platform for researchers, practitioners, and educators” in that field. Yet, the “conference” lasted only two hours on Day 1 and one hour on the morning of Day 2.

The venue was a small room with 10 attendees listening to presenters address robotics, solar energy, Islamic finance and food safety. Apparently, WASET booked multiple “conferences” on the same days for the same small room.

WASET claims 153 accepted submissions in 2017. With conference registration fees of 450 euros ($441) each, that’s 68,850 euros ($69,237) in revenue with minimal expenses. Add in airfare and two nights’ accommodations, attendees lost more than the registration fee. Incredibly, WASET conferences are booked through 2030. (See Predatory Conferences Now Outnumber Official Scholarly Events.)

Another favorite target of predatory conference promoters are members of the National Speakers Association (NSA) — many of whom command high five-figure speaking fees for conference keynote addresses. Here’s what some of my NSA colleagues had to say about what they experienced when shady conference promoters approached them.

Laurie Guest, CSP, was contacted to be a keynoter for a large conference in the dental world. It all sounded legit until she studied the website and discovered it contained photos of people taken from other sites. But, unfortunately, by that time the conference site also contained real photos of Guest. So, when angry registrants wanted reimbursement of the $999 fees for a conference that never happened, the only person they could contact was Guest. “… (I)t wasn’t good,” Laurie says. “Now [for conferences I speak at], I do not provide my photo and program description until I have received a deposit for my fee.”

Guest’s fraudulent encounter isn’t rare. The phony Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation, ostensibly sponsored by The United Arab Emirates government, approached both Chris Widener and Marilyn Sherman, CSP, CPAE, with the same scam. For Widener, the foundation promoters were going to pay $50,000 for the keynote, $10,000 for wardrobe, a 20% agency fee and $1,000 a day per diem. The contract also included first-class airfare for him and six companions. The foundation was going to pay Widener a large sum upfront, but then it wanted him to give back a portion as a donation to its charitable trust before he could deposit the large check. Widener and Sherman both realized that obliging the “foundation” would’ve cleaned out their bank accounts. The scammers also tried to fool Dog the Bounty Hunter with this new version of the “Nigerian Prince” scam. (See Revealed: How fake charity is using UAE sheikh’s name to con celebrities, by Mazhar Farooqui, Gulf News.)

Be a discerning professional

Part of building an epic leadership brand and becoming an influencer and thought leader requires sharing knowledge, wisdom and experience with audiences in a variety of channels. Whether you work in academia, or the public or private sectors, your reputation shines brightest and becomes a beacon of professional integrity for others when you make deliberate, ethical choices about the journals in which you choose to publish and the venues at which you choose to speak.

Read "Tools for evaluating scholarly journals and conferences" at the end of this article.

Donn LeVie Jr., CFE, a Fraud Magazine staff writer, has been a speaker and leadership engagement/positioning strategist every year at ACFE Annual Global Fraud Conferences since 2010. He speaks on E.P.I.C. Results™ Leadership through conference and corporate programs. LeVie has written several award-winning professional advancement strategy books and over a 40-year career has spoken at nearly 70 conferences and been published 36 times in academic journals in the earth/space sciences, engineering and technical communication. Contact him via donn@donnleviejrstrategies.com and at donnleviejrstrategies.com.

Four types of predatory publishers

Phishing

Once predatory publishers lure authors with promises, they “accept” their academic and research papers and send them costly invoices for publication.

Imposter/hijacker

Predatory publishers mimic respected journals using same fonts and sizes and style. And a journal title might include an extra word as a subtle differentiation form a legitimate journal. Websites are designed to appear similar to legitimate publications.

Trojan horse

Predatory publishers’ websites look impressive with extensive lists of “publications” and samples of plagiarized or stolen articles.

Unicorn

These could be legitimate academic publishers but might fall short on editorial services, expert peer review, publishing ethics, etc. (See Types of Predators, by Megan O’Donnell, Iowa State University Library.)

Tools for evaluating scholarly journals and conferences

How to ascertain if a journal is a predatory publisher

• Determine if publishing costs and fees aren’t openly disclosed or easy to locate, the peer-review process isn’t clearly explained or doesn’t conform to discipline standards, and the publisher or journal’s name is suspiciously similar to other well-known publications.
• Refer to Iowa State University Library’s Data Service Technician Megan O’Donnell’s 13-item checklist.
• Visit the Retraction Watch website that archives scholarly article retractions and occasionally exposes ethical violations and suspicious activity in the process.
• Read the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association code of conduct and refer to related links to understand legitimate OAP publishing.

Also refer to Beall’s List. Librarian Jeffrey Beall’s list catalogs potentially “predatory open-access publishers,” a term he coined. Naturally, OAP proponents object to Beall’s sweeping list. Threats to him forced the University of Colorado website to remove the list, but it exists on several other sites.

How to determine if you've been contacted by a predatory conference promoter

Organizers often host predatory conferences in exotic locations to distract from their low scholastic value. But the fraudsters will schedule talks in hotel meeting rooms (not in convention centers or arenas) that might hold 10 to 20 people.

See What are ‘predatory’ conferences and how I can avoid them? by Andy Nobles on the AUTHORAID website (Feb. 6, 2017). He provides questions in three critical areas: conference subject and scope, conference website and conference organizers.