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Predatory journals: what can we do to protect their prey?

By
  1. Christine Laine

    1. Editor in Chief, Annals of Internal Medicine

  2. Dianne Babski

    1. Director, User Services and Collection Division, National Library of Medicine

  3. Vivienne C. Bachelet

    1. Editor in Chief, Medwave

  4. Till W Bärnighausen

    1. Editor-in-Chief, PLOS Medicine

  5. Christopher Baethge

    1. Chief Scientific Editor, Deutsches Ärzteblatt (German Medical Journal) and Deutsches Ärzteblatt International

  6. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo

    1. Editor in Chief, JAMA and the JAMA Network

  7. Frank Frizelle

    1. Editor in Chief, New Zealand Medical Journal

  8. Laragh Gollogy

    1. Editor, Bulletin of the World Health Organization

  9. Sabine Kleinert

    1. Deputy Editor, The Lancet

  10. Elizabeth Loder

    1. Head of Research, The BMJ

  11. João Monteiro

    1. Chief Editor, Nature Medicine

  12. Eric J Rubin

    1. Editor-in-Chief, New England Journal of Medicine

  13. Peush Sahni

    1. Representative and past president of the World Association of Medical Editors, and Editor, The National Medical Journal of India

  14. Christina C Wee

    1. Secretary, International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, and Senior Deputy Editor, Annals of Internal Medicine

  15. Jin-Hong Yoo

    1. Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Korean Medical Science

  16. Lilia Zakhama

    1. Editor-in-Chief, La Tunisie Médicale

A growing number of entities misrepresent themselves as scholarly journals for financial gain despite not meeting scholarly publishing standards1,2. As editors and members of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), we receive queries about these “predatory” or “pseudo” entities and are subject to their deception when they target our authors and reviewers. The number of predatory journals is difficult to accurately determine but was estimated at more than 15,000 in 20213. While the ICMJE Recommendations include warnings about predatory publishing4, the Committee believes that the large number of increasingly bold predatory entities warrants shining a bright light on them and considering actions stakeholders can take to counter their deceptive efforts.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41591-024-00083-5

Note

This article is being simultaneously posted on ICMJE.org and published in Annals of Internal Medicine, The BMJ, Bulletin of the World Health Organization, Deutsches Ärzteblatt (German Medical Journal), JAMA, Journal of Korean Medical Science, The Lancet, La Tunisie Médicale, The National Medical Journal of India, Medwave, Nature Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine, New Zealand Medical Journal, and PLOS Medicine.

Disclaimer

Dr. Sahni’s affiliation as representative and past president of the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) does not imply endorsement by WAME member journals that are not part of the ICMJE.

References

  1. Clark, J. & Smith, R. BMJ 350, h210 (2015)

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  2. Laine, C. & Winker, M. A. World Association of Medical Editors; 18 February 2017. Accessed at https://wame.org/identifying-predatory-or-pseudo-journals on 15 November 2024.

  3. Linacre, S. Cabells blog. 1 September 2021. Accessed at https://blog.cabells.com/2021/09/01/mountain-to-climb/ on 15 November 2024.

  4. ICMJE. Updated January 2025. Available at https://icmje.org/recommendations/browse/

  5. Manca, A., et al. CMAJ 190, E1042–E1045 (2018)

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  8. Think.Check.Submit. Accessed at https://thinkchecksubmit.org/journals/ on 15 November 2024.

  9. National Institutes of Health. Issued 3 November 2017. Notice no. NOT-OD-18-011. Accessed at https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-18-011.html on 15 November 2024.

Download references

Competing Interests

CL reports employment by American College of Physicians and that her spouse has stock options in Targeted Diagnostics and Therapeutics. TB reports grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, German National Research Foundation, European Union, Germany Ministry of Education and Research, German Ministry of the Environment, Wellcome, and KfW; serving on scientific advisory boards for NIH-funded research projects in Africa on climate change and health; and small stock ownership (EUR 5000) in CHEERS, an SME focused on approaches to measure climate change and health in population cohorts. KB reports employment by the American Medical Association and relationships with Resolve to Save Lives and with University of California, San Francisco.EL reports employment by the British Medical Association. JM reports employment by Springer Nature. CW reports her role as Senior Deputy Editor of Annals Internal Medicine, employment by American College of Physicians, and teaching activities at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard University, and Boston Medical Center for which she receives honoraria.

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