Predatory journals: Do not judge journals by their Editorial Board Members

Abstract

Objective: Given that often the quality of journals is based on its editors, the objective of this study was to describe quantitatively the profiles of members of editorial boards (MEBs) of presumed predatory journals.

Methods: The following information was retrieved from 1015 editors taken from journals listed in Beall’s list: country, university, position, and degree. The Scopus website was used to identify the number of citations, documents, and h-index.

Results: Presumed open access predatory journals are including all types of profiles as their MEBs, which include fake and unqualified editors, but mostly very high-qualified scientists who are professors, medical doctors and/or had a PhD. MEBs were located in 74 different countries, most had an affiliation in the United States of America (USA) (44.4%). The median of publications per editor was 43, number of citations 664 and h-index 14.

Conclusions: The results dispute the common belief that it is possible to identify predatory journals by checking their editorial boards. Scientists should not rely on the editors to determine if a journal is predatory. If an author has doubt, the editors should be contacted.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Glossary

Predatory Journals: Publish counterfeit journals to exploit the open-access model in which the author pays. They are dishonest and lack transparency. They aim to dupe researchers, especially those inexperienced in scholarly communication. They set up websites that closely resemble those of legitimate online publishers, and publish journals of questionable and downright low quality.

Beall J (2012) Predatory publishers are corrupting open access. Nature 489 (7415):179.

Members of the editorial board: Editors are generally assigned papers based on areas of specialization and often manage 10 manuscripts per week. These editors have the final say on whether a manuscript is accepted or rejected. Journals with part-time editors handle the review process differently. Usually, a full-time managing editor sends papers to one or more members of the editorial review board, who may either provide reviews or solicit reviewers and then recommend acceptance or rejection based on reviewer comments. Board members in this model may or may not have final say in the decision to publish.

Haak L (2002) Editorial Boards Science https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2002/02/editorial-boards-step-academic-career-ladder

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Leon Ruiter-Lopez

Dr Diego A. Forero, MD, PhD, is Full Professor and Director of the PhD Program in Health Sciences at the Universidad Antonio Nariño (Bogotá, Colombia). He is Medical Doctor and PhD in Biomedical Sciences. He has authored 75 international scientific publications (articles and book chapters), with an h index of 21.

Sandra Lopez-Leon

Dr Sandra Lopez-Leon, MD, PhD, is a scientific researcher at Novartis Pharmaceuticals in NJ, USA. She has a Master in Science, Doctor in Science and PhD in Genetic Epidemiology from the University of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. She has 25 authored publications with a cumulative h-index of 11.

Diego A. Forero

Leon Ruiter-Lopez is a student at West Morris Central. He is a member of the executive board of the Red Cross of the Morris County Region and volunteers at the Hackettstown Medical Center in New Jersey, USA.