Abstract
Increasingly scholars and researchers are being solicited by predatory open access
journals seeking manuscript submissions and abusing the author-pays model by charging
authors with publishing fees without any or proper peer review. Such questionable
editorial practices are threatening the reputation and credibility of scholarly publishing.
To date, no investigation has been conducted on this phenomenon in the field of rehabilitation.
This study attempts to identify specific predatory journals operating in this field
to quantify the phenomenon and its geographic distribution. Beall's List has been
used to this end which, although not perfect, is a comprehensive and up-to-date report
of predatory publishers. Of the 1113 publishers on the list, 59 journals were identified,
for a total of 5610 published articles. The median number of articles published by
each journal was 21, and the median amount of article processing charges was $499.
Only 1 out of 59 journals was included in the Directory of Open Access Journals, whereas
7 (12%) were indexed by PubMed. Most of the publishers were based in India (36%) followed
by the United States (25%) and Pakistan (5%), and 25% were without a verifiable address.
The data indicate that the threat of predatory publishing in rehabilitation is real.
Physiatrists, physiotherapists, researchers, and academics operating in this field
are advised to use the tools available to recognize predatory practices before considering
publishing in open access journals.
Keywords
List of abbreviations:
APC (article processing charge), DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: January 20, 2017
Footnotes
Disclosures: none.
Identification
Copyright
© 2017 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine
