Open Access: Predatory Open Access

While there is no single criterion for evaluating the reputation and legitimacy of a publication, consider the following when determining whether or not to submit an article to a journal:

• Is the publication sponsored by a well-known organization?  Organizations that are well known (American Heart Association, American Society of Virology, etc.) are typically legitimate. Be careful, because a predatory publisher may use a name that is very similar to an existing organization. Ask your colleagues in your department about any organization with which you are not familiar.

• Is the exact journal title found in Journal Citation Reports or the National Library of Medicine catalog?  Many predatory publishers create a title that is very close to an original title.

Journal Citation Reports is in the Clarivate database: (http://www.isiknowledge.com/JCR) and is highly selective. (To use this database you must be on campus or at home on the VPN.) This database will also give an Impact Factor to show how influential the journal is within an area of clinical medicine or basic science. If the journal is in this database, then it is legitimate.

 National Library of Medicine Catalog (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals)

There are several types of materials now in PubMed. Some vetted by the National Library of Medicine and indexed for Medline are high quality journals.  Others may be questionable. If it is “Currently indexed for MEDLINE” then the journal is legitimate and you may have no further concerns. 

If you have concerns on the legitimacy of a conference, or if the journal to which you are submitting your article is not found in either of these databases, contact the Library faculty at shlibref@lsuhs.edu to verify that the conference or publication is legitimate.

For more information, see the following articles:

Dadkhah M, Lagzian M, Borchardt G. Questionable papers in citation databases as an issue for literature review. Journal of Cell Communication and Signaling. 2017;11(2):181-185. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5440345

Hansoti B, Langdorf MI, Murphy LS. Discriminating Between Legitimate and Predatory Open Access Journals: Report from the International Federation for Emergency Medicine Research Committee. Western Journal of Emergency Medicine. 2016;17(5):497-507. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5017830

Potential predatory and legitimate biomedical journals: can you tell the difference? A cross-sectional comparison. Shamseer L, Moher D, Maduekwe O, Turner L, Barbour V, Burch R, Clark J, Galipeau J, Roberts J, Shea BJ. BMC Med. 2017 Mar 16;15(1):28. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28298236

For more information on legitimate open access process and government mandates regarding open access, go to http://guides.lsuhsc.edu/openaccess. To bookmark this information for quick access in the future go to the Predatory Open Access Guide created by the Library faculty http://guides.lsuhsc.edu/predatory.

Dr Kelly Cobey presenting at Canadian Agency for Drugs and. Technologies in Health (CADTH), October 2019 (1 hour YouTube video)

"Why Organizations, Researchers & Patients Are Falling Prey to Predatory Journals"

Will Olmstadt grand rounds presentation, LSU Health Shreveport (16 minute YouTube video)

"Recognizing Predatory Publishing: Keys to Informed Authorship"