Study of Predatory Open Access Nursing Journals

Area of Science:

• Nursing Research
• Scholarly Publishing
• Research Integrity

Background:

• Nurses require reliable published literature for evidence-based, high-quality patient care.
• The proliferation of predatory journals threatens the integrity of nursing scholarship.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify predatory journals in nursing.
• To describe their characteristics and editorial standards.
• To document author, peer reviewer, and editor experiences with these journals.

Main Methods:

• A list of predatory nursing journals was compiled from two sources.
• Journal characteristics (e.g., publication type, fees, peer review) were collected.
• Surveys of authors, reviewers, and editors documented their experiences.

Main Results:

• 140 predatory nursing journals from 75 publishers were identified, many recently established.
• Journals exhibited varied content, including non-nursing disciplines, and inconsistent publishing frequency.
• Survey findings confirmed issues like authors selecting journals via spam and difficulty halting publication.

Conclusions:

• Predatory journals in nursing exhibit common 'red flags' like lack of transparency.
• The significant number of these journals poses a risk to the scholarly nursing literature.
• Concerns exist regarding the potential compromise of nursing scholarship and evidence-based practice.