Why is Predatory Publishing Harmful?

There are many reasons why predatory publishing can hurt you professionally. Below is a brief list of common reasons predatory publishing is harmful (Bueter, 2021).

1. Lack of Peer Review
Peer review isn’t perfect, but it is generally accepted as a necessary part of the scholarly communication process. Peer review establishes the validity of research and prevents subpar or falsified work from being published. Predatory publishers often claim a legitimate peer-review process but promise lightning-fast times for publication. It’s impossible to complete a rigorous peer-review process quickly, so they will simply publish the work without any peer review.

2. Your Work Could Disappear
Predatory publishers have no incentive to preserve articles for future access, while legitimate publishers are committed to maintaining and providing access to past issues of their journals. If your work is published by a predatory journal, it could disappear at any time.

3. Your Work Will be Difficult to Find
Many predatory publishers will claim that their journals are indexed in major databases such as PubMed or Scopus when, in fact, they aren’t. It will be much harder for others to find, use, and cite your work when it is not indexed in health science databases.

4. It Hurts Your Reputation
Publishing in a predatory journal can be harmful to your professional reputation and that of your institution. It could also hurt your tenure and promotion efforts.