Polluting and harassing “otorhinolaryngological” emails: Has the time arrived to talk openly about it?

Abstract

Over the last few years, unwanted emails daily fill the mailboxes of many scientists. Usually, they ask the recipient to send a paying article to a journal, generally with a deadline of two weeks. Now the time is coming to openly discuss and mention such kinds of demand and to name the journals behind them. The aim of this paper is thus to present, using some selected examples collected during five days (14–19 October, 2021), the dangers of responding to such a request and to specify the names of the journals concerned. Three otorhinolaryngological journals are particularly discussed: Journal of Otology and Rhinology, American Journal of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, and Global Journal of Otolaryngology. In selecting some pertinent papers, it is easy to demonstrate that these three journals can easily be considered as predatory journals. Certainly, many other predatory, otorhinolaryngological journals exist. Hopefully, this paper will finally open a serious and scientific discussion about these predatory otorhinolaryngological journals, to definitively establish an available and valid list.