The Problem of Predatory Journals: Fake Academia Joins Fake News
We’ve heard all about fakes this year: fake scandals, fake food, fake news. Now fraud emerges from a somewhat unexpected corner: academia—or rather, its counterfeit. Fraudulent academic groups have been soliciting papers from researchers for conferences and journals, but do not adhere to publication standards like peer review; instead, they accept papers unquestioningly and charge authors enormous fees.
One of the more notorious perpetrators of this type of scam is OMICS International. It is run by Srinubabu Gedala, who has been accused of plagiarism in his own academic work. OMICS and two affiliated groups, iMedPub and Conference Series LLC, are currently being sued by the Federal Trade Commission for “deceiving academics and researchers about the nature of [their] publications and hiding publication fees ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars.”
Jeff Beall, a research librarian at the University of Colorado in Denver, has published a notorious blacklist, known as “Beall’s List,” of what he calls “predatory open-access journals.” He also published a list of tips for recognizing fraudulent publications, including boastful language or failure to vet reviewers. There are over 4,000 publications on Beall’s list, including OMICS, which threatened to sue Beall for $1 billion in 2013.