An Analysis of Spam from Predatory Publications in Library and Information Science

Abstract

Predatory journals pose a significant threat to the quality of scholarly publication across disciplines, including in library and information science (LIS). These publications are known to target researchers in developing countries and researchers for whom English is not their primary language. Such publications threaten the legitimacy of researchers who may already face an uphill battle to establish a name for themselves in their field. How predatory publishers target researchers in LIS through spam invitations is the subject of this study, which partly replicates a 2017 study by Clemons et al., who examined spam invitations in the field of oncology. The data set of the present study consists of ninety-eight spam invitations from predatory publishers received by the two co-authors over a six-week period. Data analysis shows the frequency of problematic elements of content in these invitations.