Predatory journals and publishers in the health domain
problems and recommendations for researchers
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54886/ibersid.v16i2.4818Keywords:
Predatory journals, Predatory publishers, Health sciences, Scientific impact, Researchers, Scientific production, Literarture reviews, Research ethicsAbstract
The problem of predatory journals and publishers in the health field is analyzed, identifying characteristics and the insights acquired. A review of health literature indexed in ProQuest, PubMed, Scopus, SciELO, and Web of Science was conducted in 2020 and 2021. The data survey was confirmed in March 2022. The analysis allowed the characterization of the phenomenon and verify the negative effects on the health sciences, and therefore a set of recommendations was written for the researchers. A growing apprehension with predatory journals and publishers was evidenced over the past few years, especially from 2015 and confirmed since 2017. Figures for 2021 and the first months of 2022 follow this increase. The Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed are the databases that show a notorious concern with health sciences. The pressure to publish, and the difficulty in discerning legitimate journals from the illegitimate one foster a favorable envi-ronment for the proliferation of questionable publica-tions. Researchers should assume good research practices in a demanding and informed attitude on behalf of the reliability of science, by avoiding the inclusion of false, plagiarized, or manipulated data, which damage the quality of the results and conclusions, influencing scientific evidence, clinical practice, and ultimately the patients, in a negative way.
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© 2007- . Authors retain their copyright, but transfer the exploitation rights (reproduction, distribution, public communication and transformation) to the journal in a non-exclusive way and guarantee the right to the first publication of their work to the journal, which will be simultaneously subjected to the license CC BY-NC-ND. Authors take whole personal responsibility on fulfilling all the appropiate ethical codes and laws, and obtaining all the necessary copyright permissions regarding their articles. Institutional and self- archiving is allowed and encouraged.
