In 2014 over 400,000 articles were published in about 8000 journals that many regard as predatory.1 The term “predatory publishers” was first used by Jeffrey Beall of the University of Colorado, who until recently documented this phenomenon on his blog and in an annual list.2 Although this term, and variants such as “predatory journals”, are widely used, they have been criticised.3e5 One proble...

As physicians and neuroscientists, we are concerned about the clinical and scientific limitations of chip-in-the-brain technology. Until these problems are overcome, we argue that less invasive methods could be used. Implantation of an electronic chip requires opening the skull and inserting the chip into the cortex, where it records spikes from a few dozen neurons (out of millions) for an unpr...

The dilution of academic standards and poor quality publications have become a global concern. Recently, in an editorial of Current Science, SC Lakhotia, an eminent scientist from Banaras Hindu University (BHU) has raised a very important issue regarding predatory journals and academic pollution. This problem is presently worrying almost every conscientious academician. [1] Substantial efforts ...

BACKGROUND A negative consequence of the rapid growth of scholarly open access publishing funded by article processing charges is the emergence of publishers and journals with highly questionable marketing and peer review practices. These so-called predatory publishers are causing unfounded negative publicity for open access publishing in general. Reports about this branch of e-business have so...

DR HOOPER AND I would like to join our colleagues from the International Academy of Nursing Editors (INANE) and highlight the issue of predatory publishing. The term ‘‘predatory publishers’’ was coined by Jeffery Beall, an academic librarian, to describe those publishers who offer fast turnaround—for a price—with minimum or no peer review. The titles of these journals are typically similar to t...