Fake and Credible Scientific Journals
Academic Journals publishing, took a new dimension some decades ago. Rather than readers paying to read scholarly articles as was the case when there were only subscription based journals like Elsevier, a revolutionary shift which sees aggressive Open Access publishing occurred.
The open access publishing among other things makes students and researchers who cannot afford the cost of subscription have access to quality journal articles; and gives exposure and adequate publicity to research results. Educational and academic growth was therefore rapidly expanded with the cost of publishing reduced by competition.
However, there is a growing threat to this intellectual revolution. This is in two dimensions. The first is the publishing of articles without proper peer review. The Second is the call by some institutions to the academia to publish on only open access journals indexed in Scopus or Thomson Reuters or any other fake middle body between the academic community and the publisher.
The first threat exists because, academics have not proffered proper solution. Having researched extensively on the topic of academic publishing, I realised that, the solution to predatory publishing is not being indexed in Scopus and Thomson Reuters or the others which are too fake to be mentioned here. How can Scopus managed by a subscription based publisher, Elsevier, be an unbiased umpire in matters of open access publishing? Why then do they charge for listing journals? How can Thomson Reuters be a fair judge of what constitute quality in the dynamic world of publishing? What strategies would these indexing services use to check malpractice in publishing by a journal already listed? These questions are begging for answers.
The only reliable indexing services based on my research are those offered by DOAJ.Why? Because I did not find any journal they publish, they are non profit, they list journals free.
It is not surprising that many indexing bodies are springing up. The emergence of open access journals must have dealt a deadly blow to the profit margins of the subscription based journals. They must now charge open access publishing or condemn them to dwarf their growth. I read crossrefence criteria for DOI, apart from annual fee, each article stored with them will be paid for. This cost has the capacity of pushing up the cost of open access publishing. And who will bear the cost? The academia.
Without mixing words, the only things needed to make a journal reputable are: 1. ISSN 2. EDITORS. Then perhaps listing in DOAJ. Every other thing is rubbish. Any institution that makes Thomson Reuters, Scopus, EBISCO, CROSS REFERENCE criteria for considering credibility of a journal is actually discouraging research and research publication.
The only way to know if a journal is credible is to check its editorial board and verify its ISSN. A credible journal must list its editors and their affiliations. If the affilition or contact of journal editor is not listed on the homepage for any reason, betore you publish contact the journal to confirm identity of its editor or enter the name of editor (listed on the journal) on google search engine to find out who he is. The editor of journal should take the blame for predatory publishing. If an editor notices malpractice on the part of publisher, he should publicly denounce the journal before the academic community denounces him. It is by refusing to publish in a journal without verifiable editor and holding the editor responsible for unethical publshing that will can uphold the glory of quality publishing. Let there be academic and publishing freedom, OPEN ACESS!
John Chris.