Annex 2
to the letter of the directorate of science development
from 25.09. 2024 No. ___7/273-24
OCNEW SIGNS OF PREDATORY EDITIONS*
ESSENTIAL criteria of predation:
Virtue
A magazine or publisher claims to be non-profit when it is actually a for-profit company.
Journal owner/editor or publisher misrepresents scientific positions or qualifications.
The information received from the journal does not correspond to the information on the journal's website.
The journal is associated with a conference that has been recognized as predatory.
The journal has a fake ISSN.
The same article appears in several journals.
A fraudulent website created under the guise of a legitimate academic journal to allow scientists to quickly publish their research for a fee.
Reviewing
No editor or editorial board is listed on the magazine's website.
Editors actually don't exist or are dead.
The journal includes scientists in the editorial board without their knowledge or permission.
There is clear evidence that there is practically no peer review, and the journal claims that it is "peer-reviewed."
Publishing practices
The journal offers researchers the option of pre-paying a publication (publication fee) for future articles.
The journal states that there is a publication fee or other charge, but does not provide information on the amount or provides conflicting information.
The journal or publisher offers membership in order to receive discounts on publication fees, but does not provide information on how to become a member and/or membership fees.
An author must pay a publication fee before submitting an article (this payment is called a publication fee, not a submission fee).
The journal does not state that there are any fees associated with publication, review, submission, etc., but the author is charged upon submission of the manuscript.
MODERATE predation criteria:
Virtue
The name of the journal is copied or is so similar to the name of another genuine journal as to cause confusion between the two.
The name of the journal refers to a country or region that has no relation to the content or origin of the journal.
The journal/publisher hides or obscures relationships with commercial partner companies, which may lead to corporate manipulation of science.
Journal/publisher withholds or suppresses information about associated publishers or parent companies.
Reviewing
The editorial board of the journal includes well-known researchers, but they do not contribute to the development of the journal other than the use of their names and/or photos.
The members of the editorial board (appointed more than 2 years ago) have not heard anything about the journal since their appointment.
Inadequate peer review (ie, one reviewer reviews articles; reviewers review articles outside of their research area; etc.).
The journal has a large editorial board, but it publishes very few articles per year.
Evidence that the editor/editorial board members do not have the academic experience that would allow them to review publications in the field in which the journal operates.
There is no clearly formulated review policy on the journal's website.
There is little geographical diversity among the members of the editorial board, although the journal claims to be international.
Publishing practice
Publisher declares claims that promise rapid publication and/or unusually rapid review (less than 4 weeks).
The number of published articles has increased by 50-75% or more in the last year.
The geographical diversity of the authors is insignificant, although the journal claims to be international.
The journal purposefully publishes controversial articles in the interest of increasing the number of citations.
The journal publishes articles presented at conferences without additional review.
The name of the publisher suggests that it is a society, academy, etc., when it is only a publisher and offers no real benefits to its members.
The name of the publisher indicates that it is a society, academy, etc., when it is only a sole proprietor and does not meet the non-profit characteristics that are declared.
Authors are published several times in the same journal and/or issue.
Articles with the same title published by the same author in more than one journal.
Publication fee
A publisher's or journal's website seems too focused on subscription issues.
Access and copyright
It is noted that the journal is fully open access, but not all articles are in open access.
There is no way to access the articles (no information about open access or how to subscribe).
The journal is open access, but there is no information about how the journal is financially supported (eg publication fees, advertising, sponsorship, etc.).
The journal publishes material without copyright or does not operate under a license that protects copyright.
Business practices
The journal or publisher lists a business address in a Western country, but most authors are in developing countries.
The magazine was asked to stop sending emails, but it did not.
Electronic invitations to publish in the journal are received by researchers who clearly do not belong to the field covered by the journal.
E-mail invitations to become members of the editorial board or reviewers of the journal are received by researchers who do not clearly work in the field covered by the journal.
Emails received from the magazine do not include an option to unsubscribe from future emails.
MINOR predation criteria:
Virtue
Not enough resources are spent on preventing and eliminating wrongdoing by authors, which can lead to repeated cases of plagiarism, self-plagiarism, image manipulation, etc. (lack of plagiarism policy, ethics, wrongdoing, etc., lack of detectors to check for plagiarism).
The magazine uses a style that indicates that it is the industry leader, but is actually a new magazine.
Reviewing
Members of the editorial board and/or editors do not indicate their affiliation.
The founder of the publishing company is the editor of all magazines published by this company.
Website
The website does not list the publisher's physical address or lists a fake address.
A magazine or publisher uses a virtual office or other front business as its physical address.
The website does not list the physical address of the magazine's editorial office.
Broken links on the journal or publisher website.
Poor grammar and/or spelling on the journal or publisher's website.
There is no way to contact the magazine / there is only a web form.
There is an attempt to download a virus or malware on the magazine site.
Publishing practice
Lack of copywriting.
The number of published articles increased by 25-49% over the last year.
The editor publishes the research in his own journal.
Access and copyright
No digital retention policy.
The journal has a poorly written copyright policy and/or a copyright transfer form that does not actually transfer copyright.
Indexing and metrics
The publisher or its journals are not listed in standard periodical catalogs or are not widely cataloged in library databases.
Business practice
There are no subscribers / no one uses the magazine.
The journal's website is not accessible to search engines.
Many emails received from the magazine in a short period of time.
The magazine protects and locks PDF files from being copied.
* the list is compiled using the resource https://cabells.com
