{"id":8944,"date":"2020-01-22T13:28:58","date_gmt":"2020-01-22T12:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bjsm\/?p=8944"},"modified":"2020-01-25T16:30:58","modified_gmt":"2020-01-25T15:30:58","slug":"predatory-journals-defined-shedding-light-on-a-major-threat-to-scholarship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bjsm\/2020\/01\/22\/predatory-journals-defined-shedding-light-on-a-major-threat-to-scholarship\/","title":{"rendered":"Predatory journals defined: Shedding light on a major threat to scholarship"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/h6>\n
Full reference: <\/strong>\u00a0Predatory journals: no definition, no defence. Nature. Vol 576, pp 210-212; 2019<\/em><\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

Do the scientific papers you read online come from trustworthy outlets? Largely unknown a decade ago, illegitimate or predatory journal journals publish more than 400,000 studies each year<\/a>. These journals may offer to rapidly publish research findings, often at a lower cost than legitimate journals, but they don’t provide quality controls such as peer-review. Readers may be tricked into thinking content published in predatory journals has been vetted, when that isn\u2019t usually the case.<\/p>\n

There are dozens of checklists to help researchers and readers to identify predatory journals, and websites that name legitimate and illegitimate journals–but these are not consistent with one another. Agreeing on what a predatory journal is, and defining its features is important. Without a clear definition we can\u2019t support health-care providers, researchers, patients, or other readers in knowing how to avoid predatory journals.<\/p>\n

To address this, an international team of researchers met to define what a predatory journal is. This rare coming together of academics, publishers, funders, patients, and librarians has resulted in a clear definition.<\/p>\n

They agreed that predatory journals put profit ahead of scholarship. Predatory journals:<\/p>\n