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Are predatory journals undermining the credibility of science? A bibliometric analysis of citers

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  • Tove Faber Frandsen

    (University of Southern Denmark)

Abstract

Warnings against publishing in predatory journals are plentiful and so are the suggested solutions to the problem. The existing studies all confirm that authors of articles published in potential predatory journals are typically young, inexperienced and from Asia or Africa. To what extend we can consider the problem negligible is determined by the impact they are having on the scholarly communication in terms of publications and citations. The existing literature can provide more information about the former than the latter. This paper is an analysis of potential predatory journals as well as potential poor scientific standards journals. Citations to 124 potential predatory journals and poor scientific standards journals are looked up in Scopus and the citing authors analysed in regards to geographic location, publications and citations. The results show that the characteristics of the citing author indeed resemble those of the publishing author. Implications for recommendations and future research are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Tove Faber Frandsen, 2017. "Are predatory journals undermining the credibility of science? A bibliometric analysis of citers," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 113(3), pages 1513-1528, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:113:y:2017:i:3:d:10.1007_s11192-017-2520-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-017-2520-x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Björk, Bo-Christer & Solomon, David, 2013. "The publishing delay in scholarly peer-reviewed journals," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 7(4), pages 914-923.
    2. Jeffrey Beall, 2016. "Ban predators from the scientific record," Nature, Nature, vol. 534(7607), pages 326-326, June.
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    4. Lutz Bornmann & Rüdiger Mutz, 2015. "Growth rates of modern science: A bibliometric analysis based on the number of publications and cited references," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 66(11), pages 2215-2222, November.
    5. Jingfeng Xia & Jennifer L. Harmon & Kevin G. Connolly & Ryan M. Donnelly & Mary R. Anderson & Heather A. Howard, 2015. "Who publishes in “predatory” journals?," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 66(7), pages 1406-1417, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Kyle Siler, 2020. "Demarcating spectrums of predatory publishing: Economic and institutional sources of academic legitimacy," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 71(11), pages 1386-1401, November.
    2. Salim Moussa, 2021. "Citation contagion: a citation analysis of selected predatory marketing journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(1), pages 485-506, January.
    3. Erwin Krauskopf, 2018. "An analysis of discontinued journals by Scopus," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 116(3), pages 1805-1815, September.
    4. Joshua Eykens & Raf Guns & A I M Jakaria Rahman & Tim C E Engels, 2019. "Identifying publications in questionable journals in the context of performance-based research funding," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(11), pages 1-19, November.
    5. Achwan, Rochman & Ganie-Rochman, Meuthia & Alamsyah, Andi Rahman & Triana, Lidya, 2020. "University reform and the development of social sciences in Indonesia," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    6. Bo-Christer Björk & Sari Kanto-Karvonen & J. Tuomas Harviainen, 2020. "How Frequently Are Articles in Predatory Open Access Journals Cited," Publications, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-12, March.
    7. Marcelo S. Perlin & Takeyoshi Imasato & Denis Borenstein, 2018. "Is predatory publishing a real threat? Evidence from a large database study," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 116(1), pages 255-273, July.
    8. Libor Ansorge, 2023. "The right to reject an unwanted citations: do we need it?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(7), pages 4147-4150, July.
    9. Jaime A. Teixeira da Silva & Daniel J. Dunleavy & Mina Moradzadeh & Joshua Eykens, 2021. "A credit-like rating system to determine the legitimacy of scientific journals and publishers," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(10), pages 8589-8616, October.
    10. Dimity Stephen, 2023. "Medical articles in questionable journals are less impactful than those in non-questionable journals but still extensively cited," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(8), pages 4509-4522, August.
    11. Maciej J. Mrowinski & Agata Fronczak & Piotr Fronczak & Olgica Nedic & Aleksandar Dekanski, 2020. "The hurdles of academic publishing from the perspective of journal editors: a case study," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(1), pages 115-133, October.
    12. Petr Heneberg, 2019. "The troubles of high-profile open access megajournals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 120(2), pages 733-746, August.
    13. Emanuel Kulczycki & Marek Hołowiecki & Zehra Taşkın & Franciszek Krawczyk, 2021. "Citation patterns between impact-factor and questionable journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(10), pages 8541-8560, October.

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