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Economists behaving badly: Publications in predatory journals

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  • Wallace, Frederick
  • Perri, Timothy

Abstract

The extent of publishing in predatory journals in economics is examined in this paper. A simple model of researcher behavior is presented to explore those factors motivating an economist or other academic to publish in predatory journals as defined by Beall (2015). Beall’s lists are then employed to identify predatory journals and publishers included in the Research Papers in Economics (RePEc) archives. Once identified, the affiliations of authors publishing in these outlets are determined in order to identify the characteristics of those publishing in such outlets. The geographic dispersion of authorship is widespread. A very small subset of authors is registered on RePEc. Slightly more than forty percent of registered authors who publish in predatory journals in the data set have six or fewer publications, and hence might be considered inexperienced. A surprising number of authors who are in the RePEc top 5% also published in predatory journals in 2015.

Suggested Citation

  • Wallace, Frederick & Perri, Timothy, 2016. "Economists behaving badly: Publications in predatory journals," MPRA Paper 71920, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:71920
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeffrey Beall, 2012. "Predatory publishers are corrupting open access," Nature, Nature, vol. 489(7415), pages 179-179, September.
    2. Daniel Graziotin & Xiaofeng Wang & Pekka Abrahamsson, 2014. "A framework for systematic analysis of open access journals and its application in software engineering and information systems," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 101(3), pages 1627-1656, December.
    3. Christian Zimmermann, 2013. "Academic Rankings with RePEc," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 1(3), pages 1-32, December.
    4. Jevin D. West & Theodore Bergstrom & Carl T. Bergstrom, 2014. "Cost Effectiveness Of Open Access Publications," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 52(4), pages 1315-1321, October.
    5. David Card & Stefano DellaVigna, 2013. "Nine Facts about Top Journals in Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 51(1), pages 144-161, March.
    6. 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)

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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. A new paper on predatory journals in economics #RePEc
      by John Whitehead in Environmental Economics on 2016-09-07 17:32:31
    2. "Even top economists publish in predatory journals, study finds" #RePEc
      by John Whitehead in Environmental Economics on 2016-10-27 19:52:09

    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. Vít Macháček & Martin Srholec, 2021. "RETRACTED ARTICLE: Predatory publishing in Scopus: evidence on cross-country differences," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(3), pages 1897-1921, March.
    4. Saarela, Mirka & Kärkkäinen, Tommi, 2020. "Can we automate expert-based journal rankings? Analysis of the Finnish publication indicator," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 14(2).
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. Balatskiy, E. & Yurevich, M., 2021. "Russian economic science on the international market of "predatory" publications," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 50(2), pages 190-198.
    8. Panagiotis Tsigaris & Jaime A. Teixeira da Silva, 2020. "Reproducibility issues with correlating Beall-listed publications and research awards at a small Canadian business school," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 123(1), pages 143-157, April.
    9. Zahid Halim & Shafaq Khan, 2019. "A data science-based framework to categorize academic journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 119(1), pages 393-423, April.
    10. Andrew Kerr & Phillip de Jager, 2021. "A Description of Predatory Publishing in South African Economics Departments," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 89(3), pages 439-456, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Predatory Publications; RePEc;

    JEL classification:

    • A10 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - General
    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General

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