In the world of academia, getting published in an international research journal is almost the holy grail, it helps bump up the CV for hiring and helps in the competition for tenure or promotion. It takes rigorous research, an original contribution, exhaustive peer or expert reviews, and dogged persistence.
But then, there’s also an easy way — pay and publish.
An investigation by The Indian Express shows that India has emerged as one of the biggest markets for a business in which over 300 publishers manage what are called “predatory journals” that claim to be international and publish papers for a listed “charge” or “fee” that ranges from $30-$1,800 per piece.
From a plush office in the heart of Hyderabad, home to one of the world’s largest such publishers, to a one-room, one-man, one-laptop office at Richha in Bareilly, The Indian Express found that most of these publications exist online, claim to have a list of experts as editors, and employ minimal or no editorial checks before publication.
Hyderabad-based OMICS is, in fact, facing legal action by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US for fraudulent claims — a charge the company denies.
“These so-called predatory journals have brought a bad name for the country and also for many of its sincere researchers,” S C Lakhotia, professor emeritus at Banaras Hindu University, told The Indian Express.
Ten months ago, Lakhotia resigned from a committee set up by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to assess publications recommended by universities for inclusion in an approved list of around 32,000 journals maintained by the regulatory body. “The list had many bogus or dubious journals,” Lakhotia said.
On May 2, the UGC removed 4,305 journals from the list, saying they were of “questionable” nature or lacked mandatory information on their websites.
Over the last month, The Indian Express visited hundreds of such websites, criss-crossed the country from Ghaziabad to Mandsaur and Hyderabad, and interviewed owners, experts and “editors”, to find an ecosystem thriving in a grey zone.
One company was behind over 700 journals, another brought out 10. One website offered a 96% discount, another did not list its fee but said it is “fairly reasonable”. And while all the owners claimed they were running legitimate “open access” operations, the editors who responded to a questionnaire said they were yet to edit a single article.
Most of these journals covered the fields of medicine, engineering and management, the range diverse: From Journal of Aging Research and European Journal of Medicinal Plants to Journal of Religious Studies, Buddhism and Living.
The Indian Express investigation is part a global project involving 60 reporters led by German broadcasters NDR and WDR, and Suddeutsche Zeitung, with 18 partners, including Le Monde and The New Yorker.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) provided the online platform to share findings on 175,000 publications published by some of the most important predatory publishers, including OMICS, IOSR Journals and Sciencedomain. These three were among the key players that The Indian Express tracked down – along with the fee listed on their websites for each article.
OMICS
No. of journals: 785
Topics: Medicine, Pharmaceuticals, Engineering, Technology, Management
Charge: $149-$1,819
Run by Srinubabu Gedela, a PhD in Biotechnology from Andhra University, Hyderabad-based OMICS is one of the largest publishers of predatory journals in India. Court records in the US, where OMICS is facing action from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for alleged fraudulent claims, state: “Between August 25, 2011 and July 31, 2017, Defendants (OMICS) have taken in gross revenues, in the form of publication and conference registration fees from consumers, of at least approximately $50,740,100.05… Several academics and professionals who agreed to serve on the editorial boards of these journals stated that they never received any manuscripts to review.” The Indian Express contacted two experts listed as editors on the OMICS website — Rajesh Malhotra, professor of orthopaedics, AIIMS-Delhi, and Ravi Kant, director, AIIMS-Rishikesh — and both denied this claim by the publisher. The company claims to have published over 1 million articles.
REACTION: Srinubabu Gedela: “(The FTC charge) is completely wrong… They don’t know the definition of journal. They don’t know what peer review is. They are illiterates. Scientists are not illiterates. They know which article to publish in which journal.” (Note: The full interview will be published tomorrow).
Austin
No. of journals: 202
Topics: Medicine, Pharmacology
Charge: $1,800
The group, which has also published over a dozen e-books, is run by a Hyderabad-based couple, Mahendra Reddy Chirra and Siva Parvathi Chirra. Its websites show a web of addresses for various entities — from New Jersey in the US to Andheri-Kurla in Mumbai. Registrar of Company documents show that Austin Publishers Pvt Ltd was incorporated in Hyderabad on February 13, 2014. They show that its name was changed to Austin Info Consultancy Pvt Ltd in August 2015, with Mahendra Reddy and Siva Parvathi as directors. The contact details of editors, and members of the editorial team, are not available on the Austin websites. The company claims to have published over 7,000 articles.
REACTION: Mahendra Reddy Chirra: “My spouse is from a medical background… In this globalised world, location is of no matter. Academicians need their work to get published and we are serving the publication needs of all academicians across the world. Major publishers are outsourcing their work to India because of the resources available here.”
Science Domain
No. of journals: 111
Topics: Science, Technology, Medicine
Charge: $500
Run by a Hooghly-based couple, Science Domain has a registered company in the UK. As for its owners, Pinaki Mondal is listed as an MTech degree holder and a former employee of International Centre for Automobile Technology, while his wife, identified only as “Dr (Ms) M B Mondal”, is shown to have completed her PhD. Sciencedomain.org says it charges $500 per article but offers discounts of up to 96% on this price. “Kindly contact to editor.15@sciencedomain.org to know payment instructions for bank wire transfer,” it states. The website claims that four of its journals are on the UGC list but The Indian Express found only one — British Journal of Economics, Management & Trade — although its new version, Journal of Economics, Management and Trade, is missing. The company claims to have published over 20,000 articles.
REACTION: Dr (Ms) M B Mondal: “We strongly protest any attempt to label Sciencedomain International as a predatory publisher… (Our) journals follow the transparent open peer review model, so the main criteria of predatory publishing cannot be applied.”
IAEME
No. of journals: 126
Topics: Engineering, Management
Charge: $170-$550
The website of IAEME (International Association of Engineering and Management Education) shows that it is run by Dr S Balasubramanyan, who is identified as a PhD. The website claims that IAEME is “a non-profit international association for engineering and management education”, and claims that it “takes only 3-5 days for an article publication”. IAEME claims that seven of its journals are on the UGC list but only five are actually listed. In separate claims on its websites, the company says it has published “5,500 papers” and “11,713 articles”.
REACTION: Dr S Balasubramanyan: “We are not going to provide any information other than what is already available on our website.”