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Predatory Publishing

Not all open access publications are created equal--some are of very low qaulity and should be avoided. This guide will help researchers tell the difference

It can be almost impossible for most people to tell which articles in their search results come from predatory or questionable publishers. These articles have all the trappings of "legitimate" publications, yet the research they describe could be poorly done, copied from other papers, or even completely fraudulent. With just a little effort, it is possible to tell the difference and avoid bad research papers.

Avoidance

Results from predatory journals are included in Google searches—even when using Google Scholar. The screenshot below shows a Google Scholar search in which the first or most "relevant" scholarly article is, in fact, totally fraudulent and based on the television series Breaking Bad.

Your first line of defense is to use the research databases from the library’s A-Z database list. These databases are curated by the creators/publishers. That means that all of the journals included have been evaluated for the quality of research they publish. By using these databases you can be sure that the papers have really been peer reviewed and meet basic standards for research integrity.

The main drawback of this approach is that you limit yourself to a subset of published research—only those journals that were approved by the databases.

Evaluation

Sometimes you need to use papers you find using Google Scholar or other non-curated search tools. In this case you will need to evaluate the papers before you decide whether or not to use them. The following step-by-step evaluation process is just one possible way to do this.

  • Is the article paywalled? The vast majority of questionable research is published in open access (OA) journals. If you are blocked by a paywall, the odds are that the article is legitimate. Remember that as a member of the Illinois Tech community, you don’t need to pay for the article—just request it using MyILL. On-campus users may not experience paywalls because of IP-based authentication to otherwise paywalled content. Check the top of the page to see if there’s a “provided by IIT” banner. If there is, again the odds are that the article is legitimate.
  • Check OA content in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). DOAJ has evaluated hundreds of OA journals and only those that meet their standards quality are included.

If your article was published in an OA journal not listed in DOAJ, you may still be able to use it, but it will take a bit more work to evaluate it.

  • Look up the authors. A quick online search for authors should turn up such information as what institutions they work at, other articles they’ve published, etc. Additionally, look up the institutions to see what you can find out about them. If you can’t find any information about the authors or their institutions or if the information looks questionable, consider that a red flag.
  • Check the authors in Retraction Watch. Retraction Watch is a database of papers that have been withdrawn from publication due to errors or fraud. If the authors of your paper have a record of retractions, consider that a red flag.
  • Closely read the article. Does the methodology make sense? Are the results consistent? If in doubt, ask a colleague, your professors, or another expert. Also, check the references. Bogus papers often have irrelevant references or completely fake references that can’t be found by any search tool.