Abstract

MOUTON, Johann  and  VALENTINE, Astrid. The extent of South African authored articles in predatory journals. S. Afr. j. sci. [online]. 2017, vol.113, n.7-8, pp.1-9. ISSN 1996-7489.  http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2017/20170010.

We present a first estimate of the extent of predatory publishing amongst South African academics. This estimate is based on an analysis of all South African authored papers that qualified for subsidy over the period 2005 to 2014. The analysis shows that 4246 South African papers were published in 48 journals which we re-classified (refining Beall's classification) as either being probably or possibly predatory. A breakdown of these papers by year shows that the greatest increase in predatory publishing has occurred since 2011. Results are also presented of the distribution of these papers by individual university and scientific field. We conclude with some suggestions about predatory publishing and its pervasive consequence for our trust in science and how this should be addressed by the major stakeholders in the South African higher education system. SIGNIFICANCE: •This study is the first to analyse the extent of predatory publishing in South Africa.

Keywords : predatory publishing; scholarly publishing; South Africa; open access journals; DHET funding framework.

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