Predatory Publishing: A Quantitative Assessment, the Predatory Score (original) (raw)

Predatory publishing is a relatively new concept but for which few industry standards and regulations have been implemented, either due to regulatory limitations or due to difficulties in dealing with the political correctness and sensitivity of these issues, particularly among mainstream publishing houses and the wider scientific community. However, with a growing expansion of and reliance on the internet, with a deepening economic global crisis, those who seek to take the road of deceit is increasing, not only to secure power, but to also amalgamate wealth, through whatever means they feel fit. Within this volatile toxic climate of human survival, and the lack of transparency and of independent regulatory watchdogs, online publishing, specifically open access publishing, has taken a nasty turn. This paper does not examine what predatory publishing is, because the root causes are multiple, and complex, but attempts to create some concrete definitions and quantitative measurements that would allow the scientific community to better guide and protect itself from abuse. In this paper, I attempt to quantify those factors that are negative and those that are positive, and have assigned arbitrary values based on a relative weighting system, the Predatory Score (PS). With this first quantitative system – which in itself is in no way perfect – to assess predatory publishing, authors will be able to better assess a publisher before submission, publishers will be able to better assess themselves regarding their own practices (with the objective of lowering their PS and improving their service record, and any person or institute associated with a publisher would be able to assess the academic and structural qualities (weaknesses and strengths) of that publisher. Based on the PS, individuals within the academic community will be better able to – freely and independently – make more value-based decisions regarding publishing. A useful glossary of ecologically-based terms adapted to describe predatory publishing is also provided to assist in the future description of predatory publishers.