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list up-to-date on a daily basis to expose current tactics of the predators and guide authors. Research is
ongoing to provide more stringent criteria and objective evidence to overcome Beall’s critics. Kscien’s
list could help to fill the gap left by Beall’s list (Kakamad, et al., 2020).
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The Centre for Journalology, an independent journalology centre, has been set up by the Ottawa
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Hospital, Research Institute, Canada. A group of experts conduct research and provide outreach on
a wide range of journalology topics under the leadership of Dr. David Moher. The goal is to help
enhance reporting quality of research in order to increase the value of biomedical research. The team
is actively studying predatory journals to develop a one-stop shop of educational resources and tools
related to predatory journals. Further, they aim to determine if and how work published in predatory
journals goes on to be cited; and develop a digital journal authenticator tool that will provide users
with information about the operations of any given journal. A number of publications related to
predatory journals have been published by this group.

Cabell’s Scholarly Analytics (Commercial Initiative)

Cabell’s Scholarly Analytics, USA, publishes two products, Journalytics and Predatory Reports to
universities and academic institutes. They have curated list of over 11,000 academic journals spanning
18 disciplines. Curation is based on 60 behavioural indicators, which keep the research community
aware of predatory journals. Products by Cabells are accessible on subscription basis, and more
information is available online.
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Indian Initiatives

Publication in predatory journals is on the rise in India and is being debated internationally. Efforts
were made to find out number of predatory journals published in India (Seethapathy, et al., op. cit.;
Patwardhan, et al., 2018). The University Grants Commission (UGC), Delhi, a statutory body of the
Government of India for Higher Education established the Consortium for Academic and Research
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Ethics (CARE) in 2018 to combat predatory journals. The main objective of UGC-CARE is to
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develop, manage, and update the UGC-CARE Reference List of quality journals (Patwardhan, 2019).
Moreover, the quality mandate of UGC also implies that publications in predatory journals should
not be accepted by any Higher Educational Institution (HEI) for any academic purpose (promotion,
direct recruitment, supervisory role). Creating awareness about ethics in research and publications is
on the UGC radar. In this direction UGC has made a two-credit course on “Research and Publication
Ethics” compulsory for all Ph.D. students, to be completed in the first year of registration of a doctoral
program. UGC also published a guidance document, “Good Academic Research Practices (GARP)”
which offers recommendations for institutions to inculcate the culture of research integrity in
particular institutions (Patwardhan, et al., 2020).

Tips for Selecting Credible Journals

• Think.check.submit : This international, cross-sector initiative (members from COPE, DOAJ,
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OASPA, ISSN, etc.) helps researchers identify trusted journals and publishers for their research.
• Journal finder: Many publishers provide help to researchers to find and select the appropriate
journal relevant to their topic of research. For example Journal Finder by Elsevier, Springer
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Journal Suggester, Wiley Journal Finder. 18
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