Predatory journals contribute to inequity in the academic food chain

Earlier this year, a publisher for open access journals came under fire when it was “fined $50 Million after scamming thousands of scientists”. This publisher is not an isolated case but belongs to a group known as ‘Predatory Journals’. What are their practises and how are they damaging the academic publishing industry?

Establishing a competitive publication record is an important measure of academic success for most early career academics’. In addition to being an important metric amongst peers, universities often use publications to evaluate academic researchers’ performance and asses job candidates and applications for internal promotions. Likewise, strong publication track records for researchers are essential criteria for many external funding applications.

“The pressure to publish high-impact papers is therefore felt by researchers throughout their careers.”

‘Publish or perish!’

The negative implications of this ‘publish or perish’ culture for academic integrity, research ethics and the quality of published research (not to mention researchers’ mental health) are now recognised as growing concerns in the global academic community.

Academics in communities where employment and funding opportunities are less available feel these pressures even more acutely, coupled with often having limited access to facilities, technical support and training.

Read the full post here: https://digest.sparrho.com