User:JzG/Predatory

A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z

Quick guide to finding problematic citations

Foobar Society[1] | (search/all)[2] | foobar.org  [3] | {{DOI|10.1234}}[4] | {{ISSN|1234-5678}}[5] ^ Link to Wikipedia article, if one exists. ^ Search mainspace/all spaces for 'Foobar Society'. Good to find citations without URLs or DOIs, but will have several false positives, especially for generic sounding publishers with short names. ^ Search for URLs with foobar.org in them. Can have some false positives if other URLs have a domain that ends with foobar.org, like jamesfoobar.org. The lock and chain symbols will make use of Special:Linksearch. ^ Search for DOI matches. Fewest false positives, but assumes there is DOI. ^ Search for ISSN matches. Few false positives, but assumes there is ISSN.

Some of the characteristics of predatory open-access publishing include:

• Unheard-of publishers with dozens of journals in unrelated areas
• Groups of journals with very similar or overlapping scope
• Journals with absurdly broad subject areas
• Journals with few published articles per issue, or few published issues
• No journal impact factor
• Use of fake "impact factors"
• Not in ISI JCR
• Not in DOAJ
• Absent from standard indexes (e.g. medical journals not indexed in PubMed)
• Cited in hoax publication tests
• Listed by Jeffrey Beall
• No DOI number
• Spammed by WP:SPAs, especially where usernames match author names
• Online reports of spam solicitation for papers