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Predatory publishing
By :Dinesh C Sharma
Oct 25 2016

Predatory pricing is something which people are now familiar with in context of the ongoing price war in India’s broadband market. The world
of science is also witnessing turmoil over a similarly sounding phenomenon — predatory publishing. In short, predatory publishing is a
business of peddling fake science in scientific journals for money. The issue is serious because India is at the centre of an international
controversy around predatory publishing.
Traditionally scientific journals have depended on subscriptions and limited advertising for their sustenance. Online content of such journals
is also subscription-based. High subscriptions mean that the science published in these journals remains accessible only to scientists and
academics in the rich West who can pay for the content. Only a few institutions and universities in the developing world could afford such
paid subscriptions. This gave rise to a sort of movement towards open-access journals about 15 years ago. In this model, research content
of journals is freely available online but publishers can charge a fee from authors to cover their costs.
The open-access model has worked well all these years, giving visibility and access to research from around the world. But it has also given
rise to the phenomenon of fake journals and fake science. Open access journals of questionable quality and substance — and no system for
peer review — are exploiting researchers. These journals actually prey on researchers, lure them into publishing with them and then send
bills running into several thousand dollars as processing fee. Predatory journals are like a black market in science, and it is worth billions of
dollars globally. Predictably, India and China are home to a huge number of predatory journals.
Dubious scientific journals are in the news for two reasons. One such journal recently accepted a manuscript of 153-word school essay
written by a seven-year old American boy on how cool bats were, for a publication fee of $60 . The ‘paper’ was sent by his father who is an
academic, to expose fake journals. The journal has a high sounding name – International Journal of Comprehensive Research in Biological
Sciences – and claims to be “peer reviewed”. A quick look at its website reveals that the journal is published from Rasipuram town in
Namakkal district of Tamil Nadu, and is edited by an assistant professor from Mohamed Sathak College of Arts and Science in Chennai.
Members of its editorial board consisting of 38 persons are from Tanzania, Korea, China, America, Switzerland and a range of towns in
Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Incidentally, one can also buy a seat on editorial boards of predatory journals.
Predatory publishers from India have hit headlines in Canada where an Indian publisher has bought over two scientific publishers known for
publishing credible journals. Canadian scientists have raised the red flag because the Indian publisher in question is facing charges of fraud
and deception filed by the US Federal Trade Commission. The Hyderabad-based Omics group, which publishes 700 scientific journals, is

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registered in Nevada. The FTC has charged the publisher of “deceiving academics and researchers about the nature of its publications” and
hiding about publication fees. The publisher, however, has denied the charges. The researcher, who approached the FTC, was sent an
invoice of $2700 for publishing a paper.
Scientific journals are an important part of the ecosystem of scientific research and academic work. They act as vehicles through which
scientists announce results of their research – discoveries, inventions, new techniques and technologies. The reputation of scientists (in
India, their promotions too) depends on the number of quality of research papers they publish. There is a pecking order as well, and
methods of fixing ‘impact factor’ of journals. Journals which publish research papers after a stringent peer review process get top rankings.
The two cases discussed here are just a tip of the iceberg. Thousands of such publishers are based in India and are preying on ignorant (or
willing) academics who want to see their papers in a scientific journal somehow. It is high time Indian science academies start exposing
fraud journals and publishers, making their names public and warning researchers not to publish in these journals. This whole business of
predatory journals should also concern us all because much of science news that we read in popular media is derived from research papers
published in scientific journals.

(Dinesh C. Sharma is a journalist and author with thirty years of experience reporting on science, technology and innovation)

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