Kscien's list; a new strategy to discourage predatory journals and publishers

Abstract

The trend through which academia finances scientific publication has been developing in recent years towards open access publishing, which can be exploited by predatory journals and publishers. The aim of this paper is to review the current situation of predatory publishing and introduce Kscien's list of predatory journals and publishers. Kscien has recruited a special committee consisting of 23 young researchers. They are working to keep the list up-to-date, expose current tactics of the predators and guide authors. The list is designed to be updated daily. Currently, the criteria used to recognize predatory journals and publishers depends on the journal's conduct, evidence of fabrication and levels of peer review. Research is ongoing to provide more solid criteria and objective evidence to overcome the critics of Beall. Kscien's list could help to fill the gap left by Beall's list.

Predatory journals in oncology: prevalence and impacts

“…The authors picked up the predatory oncology journals from Kscien’s blacklist12. Kscien blacklist is an updated version of the previous Beall’s blacklist.…”

Un caso de publicación en revista médica pirata

“…Este artículo fue luego retirado por supuestos errores en regresiones estadísticas de países involucrados, pero no por errores en el hallazgo de las revistas piratas 9 . También hay revistas piratas en castellano como, por ejemplo "Vitae" o la "Revista Iberoamericana de las Ciencias de la Salud" 10 .…”

“…Es necesario contar con una definición adecuada de "revista pirata" como uno de los pasos iniciales para su control. No obstante, la velocidad de cambio y las tácticas empleadas para disfrazarse les permiten mantenerse vigentes 10 .…”

Canadian Academics’ use of predatory journals

“…Beall’s list had been used in these studies because identifying predatory journals is difficult and time-consuming, not least because predatory journals exist on a spectrum, and there is no single collection of factors that will identify a predatory journal without fail. For much of the last decade, Beall’s list was also the only major curated list of predatory journals – other lists, such as Cabell’s (paywalled) and Kscien’s now exist, but none have yet reached the level of familiarity or notoriety that Beall’s list possessed [ 41 , 42 ]. It is reasonable to suggest that the limited number of studies conducted on predatory journals has been in part because of the difficulty of defining predatory journals as a concept, and more specifically, because of the difficulties associated with identifying specific predatory journals to study.…”