When Dr. Anna O. Szust emailed all of these academic journals to join their editorial boards, she did not anticipate that so many of them would approve her application within hours. In fact, she did not think anything at all, as she did not exist.
“Szust” is the Polish word for “fraud,” and Dr. Szust was a fabrication concocted for the purpose of a sting operation in 2015.
Her scientific degrees were fake and her profile fell far short of what she needed to be an editor for an academic journal, tasked with judging the merits of a manuscript and overseeing its peer review. Nonetheless, many journals welcomed her into their editorial family, with four of them stunningly appointing her editor-in-chief!
You may have heard the name “predatory journal” before. Academic journals publish the findings and opinions of academics. Scientific journals, in particular, release the results of scientific studies in the form of papers which, we are told, are reviewed prior to publication by peers—fellow scientists in the field who are supposed to scrutinize the manuscript and ensure that bad science doesn’t get a pass. A predatory journal only pretends to do so. It exists solely to make money. It’s like a parasite on the back of the scientific endeavour. What it publishes, then, is of questionable quality.
The McGill article notes that public discourse on predatory journals often errs on the side of simplicity. Many are of implausibly broad scope ,accepting papers on topics as diverse as nuclear physics, geography, and nursing...
Counterintuitively, the fees predatory journals charge are often an order of magnitude lower than non-predatory journals, as little as $63.
Bad journals cater to authors rather than readers. Websites are made to make manuscript submission easy, and promisesrapid review and publication.
Instead of using a dedicated online submission portal for papers, it will often ask for authors to simply attach their paper to an email. Since potential authors seldom visit junk journal websites many issue bulk email invitations to publish or serve on the editorial board.
These invitations, often lavishly complimentary like this one received by an orthodontist: “Based on your eminent expertise and immense contributions in the field, we warmly solicit your participation in the upcoming issue.”
