Prevalence of potentially predatory publishing in Scopus on the country level

Abstract

We present results of a large-scale study of potentially predatory journals (PPJ) represented in the Scopus database, which is widely used for research evaluation. Both journal metrics and country/disciplinary data have been evaluated for different groups of PPJ: those listed by Jeffrey Beall and those discontinued by Scopus because of “publication concerns”. Our results show that even after years of discontinuing, hundreds of active potentially predatory journals are still highly visible in the Scopus database. PPJ papers are continuously produced by all major countries, but with different prevalence. Most all science journal classification subject areas are affected. The largest number of PPJ papers are in engineering and medicine. On average, PPJ have much lower citation metrics than other Scopus-indexed journals. We conclude with a survey of the case of Russia and Kazakhstan where the share of PPJ papers in 2016 amounted to almost a half of all Kazakhstan papers in Scopus. Our data suggest a relation between PPJ prevalence and national research evaluation policies. As such policies become more widespread, the expansion of potentially predatory journal research will be increasingly important.