Interesting Current Science opinion paper on "Predatory Journals"

[anup kumar das]

*Predatory Journals and Indian Ichthyology*
by R. Raghavan, N. Dahanukar, J.D.M. Knight, A. Bijukumar, U. Katwate, K.
Krishnakumar, A. Ali and S. Philip
*Current Science, 2014, 107(5), 740-742.*

Although the 21st century began with a hope that information and
communication technology will act as a boon for reinventing taxonomy, the
advent and rise of electronic publications, especially predatory
open-access journals, has resulted in an additional challenge (the others
being gap, impediment and urgency) for taxonomy in the century of
extinctions.
Predatory publishing has damaged the very foundations of scholarly and
academic publishing, and has led to unethical behaviour from scientists and
researchers. The ‘journal publishing industry’ in India is a classical
example of ‘predatory publishing’, supported by researchers who are in a
race to publish. The urge to publish ‘quick and easy’ can be attributed to
two manifestations, i.e.‘impactitis’ and ‘mihi itch’. While impactitis can
be associated with the urge for greater impact factor (IF) and scientific
merit, mihi itch (loosely) explains the behaviour of researchers,
especially biologists publishing in predatory journals yearning to see
their name/s associated with a new ‘species name’. Most predatory journals
do not have an IF, and authors publishing in such journals are only seeking
an ‘impact’ (read without factor), and popularity by seeing their names
appear in print media. This practice has most often led to the publication
of substandard papers in many fields, including ichthyology.

Download Full-text Article:
http://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/107/05/0740.pdf
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