Publishing in black and white: the relevance of listing of scientific journals

A selection of clinically relevant papers from other journals. The summaries on this page have been chosen and edited by Paul Hellyer. In this issue Paul chooses a selection of papers from the recent Springer Nature Change the World One Article at a Time initiative .

Abstract

Researchers need to chose journals for publication carefully

Main

Misra D, Ravindran V, Wakhlu A, Sharma A, Agarwal V, Negi V. Rheumatol Int 2017; 37: 1773–1778. DOI: 10.1007/s00296-017-3830-2

In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of journals publishing online and in print. The authors suggest that many of these may be 'predatory' and lack the vigour of traditional peer review, providing information of low quality, and acceptance of an article for publication is only forthcoming after the payment of a fee. Young researchers are faced with pressures to publish but the choice of where to publish is compounded by the presence of these journals, which often have similar sounding names to existing reputable publications.

The authors discuss the creation of personal 'white lists' of appropriate journals for publication, using such indexing facilities as Medline, Pubmed and Web of Science and the importance of understanding how each indexing system works. Personal (and possibly departmental or national representative body) 'black lists' may also be helpful. Journals which engage in spam emails, flattery and tight deadlines should be avoided.

'The temptation to use rapid predatory publishing for promotion and short-term academic furtherance needs to be actively resisted.'