'Predatory' Online Journals Lure Scholars Who Are Eager to Publish

OMICS Publishing Group is an open-access publisher operating under an author-pays model. Unlike traditional journal subscriptions in which readers or institutions pay to read content, OMICS relies on its contributors for financial support. Although the author-pays model is not a new phenomenon in the realm of open access, its recent popularity has attracted some companies that try to exploit it. Some legitimate, peer-reviewed journals support themselves on the author-pays model, but other journals using the model are essentially vanity publishers that accept virtually any article to collect fees from the authors. The distinction between those two extremes, though, is not always clear-cut. OMICS insists that it falls squarely into the legitimate camp. With more than 12,000 Facebook fans, 200 journals, about 20,000 editorial board members, and dozens of conferences each year, the company says it is positioning itself to become a leader in open-access scholarship. But numerous authors, faculty members, and open-access advocates have raised concerns about the practices of OMICS and the quality of its journals. In some cases, faculty members say they were named to editorial boards without their consent and cannot get OMICS to remove their names. Some authors allege that despite the company's claims, their articles were not peer reviewed and have even contained mistakes that should have been corrected in previous drafts. Others say the company's fees, which can be as high as several thousand dollars, are excessive and are not transparent. Journals like those run by OMICS often appeal to prospective contributors in part because of their quick turnaround time; it usually takes just several weeks to have an article reviewed, accepted, and published. For graduate students and junior faculty members under pressure to publish, a company's promise of such a short review process can be an attractive prospect. By contrast, the review process at established print journals can last for months.