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Stop this waste of people, animals and money

Nature volume 549, pages 23–25 (2017)Cite this article

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Predatory journals have shoddy reporting and include papers from wealthy nations, find David Moher, Larissa Shamseer, Kelly Cobey and colleagues.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. a clinical epidemiologist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, and part of the Study Reporting in Predatory Journals Group, Ontario, Canada

    David Moher

  2. the Centre for Journalology, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada

    Larissa Shamseer

  3. the School of Epidemiology, Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

    Larissa Shamseer

  4. the Centre for Journalology, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada

    Kelly D. Cobey

  5. the School of Epidemiology, Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

    Kelly D. Cobey

  6. the School of Natural Sciences, Department of Psychology, University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland

    Kelly D. Cobey

  7. the Centre for Journalology, Clinical Epidemiology Program, and the Regenerative Medicine Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada

    Manoj M. Lalu

  8. the School of Epidemiology, Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

    Manoj M. Lalu

  9. the Centre for Journalology, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada

    James Galipeau

  10. the Centre for Journalology, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada

    Marc T. Avey

  11. the School of Epidemiology, Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

    Marc T. Avey

  12. the Centre for Journalology, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada

    Nadera Ahmadzai

  13. Undergraduate Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

    Mostafa Alabousi

  14. the Centre for Journalology, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada

    Pauline Barbeau

  15. the Centre for Journalology, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada

    Andrew Beck

  16. the Centre for Journalology, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada

    Raymond Daniel

  17. Undergraduate Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

    Robert Frank

  18. the Centre for Journalology, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada

    Mona Ghannad

  19. the Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Academic Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Mona Ghannad

  20. the Centre de Recherche Épidémiologie et Statistique Sorbonne Paris Cité (CRESS-UMR1153) INSERM, Université Paris Descartes, Centre d'épidémiologie Clinique, Paris, France

    Mona Ghannad

  21. the Centre for Journalology, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada

    Candyce Hamel

  22. the Centre for Journalology, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada

    Mona Hersi

  23. the Centre for Journalology, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada

    Brian Hutton

  24. the School of Epidemiology, Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

    Brian Hutton

  25. the Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

    Inga Isupov

  26. Undergraduate Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

    Trevor A. McGrath

  27. the Centre for Journalology, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada

    Matthew D. F. McInnes

  28. the School of Epidemiology, Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

    Matthew D. F. McInnes

  29. the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

    Matthew J. Page

  30. the School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

    Matthew J. Page

  31. the Centre for Journalology, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada

    Misty Pratt

  32. the Centre for Journalology, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada

    Kusala Pussegoda

  33. the Centre for Journalology, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada

    Beverley Shea

  34. the School of Epidemiology, Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

    Beverley Shea

  35. the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, Faculty of Mathematics, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada

    Anubhav Srivastava

  36. the Centre for Journalology, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada

    Adrienne Stevens

  37. the Translational Research in Biomedicine (TRIBE) Graduate Program, University of Split School of Medicine, Split, Croatia

    Adrienne Stevens

  38. the Centre for Journalology, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada

    Kednapa Thavorn

  39. the School of Epidemiology, Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

    Kednapa Thavorn

  40. the Centre for Journalology, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada

    Sasha van Katwyk

  41. the Centre for Journalology, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada

    Roxanne Ward

  42. the Centre for Journalology, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada

    Dianna Wolfe

  43. the Centre for Journalology, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada

    Fatemeh Yazdi

  44. Undergraduate Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

    Ashley M. Yu

  45. Undergraduate Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

    Hedyeh Ziai

Authors
  1. David Moher
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  2. Larissa Shamseer
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  3. Kelly D. Cobey
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  4. Manoj M. Lalu
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  5. James Galipeau
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  6. Marc T. Avey
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  7. Nadera Ahmadzai
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  8. Mostafa Alabousi
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  9. Pauline Barbeau
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  10. Andrew Beck
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  11. Raymond Daniel
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  12. Robert Frank
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  13. Mona Ghannad
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  14. Candyce Hamel
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  15. Mona Hersi
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  16. Brian Hutton
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  17. Inga Isupov
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  18. Trevor A. McGrath
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  19. Matthew D. F. McInnes
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  20. Matthew J. Page
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  21. Misty Pratt
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  22. Kusala Pussegoda
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  23. Beverley Shea
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  24. Anubhav Srivastava
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  25. Adrienne Stevens
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  26. Kednapa Thavorn
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  27. Sasha van Katwyk
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  28. Roxanne Ward
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  29. Dianna Wolfe
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  30. Fatemeh Yazdi
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  31. Ashley M. Yu
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  32. Hedyeh Ziai
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to David Moher.

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Related links in Nature Research

Predatory journals recruit fake editor 2017-Mar-22

Controversial website that lists ‘predatory’ publishers shuts down 2017-Jan-18

Open-access index delists thousands of journals 2016-May-09

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Moher, D., Shamseer, L., Cobey, K. et al. Stop this waste of people, animals and money. Nature 549, 23–25 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/549023a

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