Incidence and prospection of publication in predatory journals among SVU academic staff

Abstract EN

Predatory journals seek only for money without providing a suitable scientific service to the authors and readers and publish questionable and untrusted articles.

Publishing in predatory journal destroy the reputation of scholars as well as their scientific institutions.

The current study was performed with two aims.

Fist to analyze the incidence of SVU publication contribution in predatory journals in 2016 and 2017.

Second to investigate the prospection and awareness of SVU academic staff about predatory journals.

Lists of SVUinternational publication rewards in 2016 and 2017 were received after permission of SVU authorities and analyzed against Beal‟s list.

An online survey of academic staff holding SVU-international publication rewards in 2016 and 2017 was conducted.

Data analysis revealed that the SVU published 660 papers in the years 2016 and 2017; 33 of these papers (5%) appeared in Beall's list for predatory journals.

The faculties contributed to the predatory journals were sciences (17), engineering (7), Medicine (3), Veterinary Medicine (3), Agriculture (2) and pharmacy (1).

The survey showed a satisfactory level of awareness among the respondents about predatory journals but a low knowledge of Beall‟s list.

No guideline or actions against predatory publishing existed at SVU.

The results suggested the need to continue raising the awareness of the SVU academic staff about predatory journals and Beall‟s list through workshops and seminars, and to apply specific actions against publishing in predatory journals.