The Pressure to Publish More and the Scope of Predatory Publishing Activities : Armen Yuri Gasparyan, Bekaidar Nurmashev, Alexander A. Voronov, Alexey N. Gerasimov, Anna M. Koroleva, George D. Kitas J Korean Med Sci. 2016 Dec; 31(12): 1874–1878. Published online 2016 Sep 22. doi: 10.3346/jkms.2016.31.12.1874 PMCID: PMC5102848
One of the earliest motives behind publishing scholarly articles was the dissemination of information among professionals. It also aimed to encourage discussions and preserve valuable information for use by future generations. This approach has been embraced by all top academic journals today, and as the authors write, most authors and readers take this for granted.
With the growth in means and methods of communication and fluidity in the domain of publishing, the value associated with well-preserved journal articles has diminished. The authors go on to discuss how a vast majority of acclaimed, presented abstracts do not get published into full articles, neither form a part of scientific discourse. There is lack of clarity in distinguishing the quality and importance of abstracts and full articles make way for faulty crediting systems. This environment is conducive to the emergence of predatory parties, giving opportunities for publishing abstracts after charging a fee, without any structured approach and no scope of proper indexing in acclaimed bibliographic databases.
In this article, Gasparyan and others discuss a very important issue- the scope of predatory publishing in details. For instance, they discuss how a recent MEDLINE analysis brought to light the questionable practice of renowned authors publishing more than one research paper per ten working days. This has resulted in hundreds of articles by scholars who are well placed in influential posts, and can easily publish their journals. You will also learn some alarming truths- a blog article, for instance, reveals that predatory journals exploit articles of inexperienced authors from poor research environments, who value quantity over quality of their publications.
For all aspiring researchers out there, this article is a valuable piece of information to keep you on your toes and safe from predatory activities. So, go ahead and give this a read.