Page 144 - Academic and Research Book_WEB

• Journal titles simultaneously combine two or more subjects or disciplines, which may not
necessarily be specific to the journal.
• No contact details of publisher and editor are provided.

• False locations of the offices of the publisher and editor/s are given.
• Lack of information on the editorial board members.
• Lack of information about the frequency of periodicals/Journals/Serials.
• Fraudulent or improper use of ISSNs and logos of standard publishers.

• Many editors are unaware of the inclusion of their names on editorial boards.

Contents of the Journals

Articles in such journals are characterized by:

• Low quality

• Several typographical mistakes
• Plagiarised work
• Out of sync with the aims and scope of the journal

• Multidisciplinary — not committed to any single discipline.

Lack of Standard Publishing Practices

• The peer review process is absent.
• Spam emails inviting articles are sent to authors.

• Attracting academicians to serve as editorial board members/peer reviewers only for
convenience or value addition.

• Articles are accepted only after the payment of submission charges.
• High acceptance rate.

• Lack of publication ethics, peer review, and retraction policy.
• Article submission guidelines are not given.

• Very quick turnaround time for acceptance and publication of articles.

False Impact Factor and Indexing Databases

• False, non-existent, misrepresented Impact Factor (IF)is generated.
4
• Unscientific methodology for calculating the IF.
• The IF is purchased by publishers from fraudulent companies like Universal Impact Factor
(UIF), Global Impact Factor (GIF), etc. (More than 20 such companies exist to date).
• Journals are included in sub-standard indexing databases on a payment basis (for example,
5
Index Copernicus).

• False claims of indexation of journals in world-recognized databases.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY AND RESEARCH QUALITY | 133