(from February 2025 Annals for Educators)
Predatory or “pseudo” journals can endanger the public by facilitating the dissemination of unvetted and fraudulent health information. Their deceptive practices also harm authors, their funders and academic institutions, and legitimate journals and publishers and can undermine science and the scholarly publishing process. In this editorial, members of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors raise awareness and outline strategies stakeholders can use to counter the deceptive efforts of predatory journals.
Use this article to:
- Have you received e-mails from journals soliciting manuscript submissions or inviting you to join editorial boards? If so, have you questioned the legitimacy of the journals?
- If your organization has a medical library, ask a librarian how they can identify legitimate publications for your work.
- Go to the Think. Check. Submit. website and use the site to identify whether some sample journals are legitimate.
- Review the steps you should take if you believe you have inadvertently sent your work to a predatory publication.
Annals for Educators is a Web Exclusives feature of Annals of Internal Medicine which includes activities using selected Annals articles to help medical educators in their teaching activities.
Back to the March 2025 issue of ACP IMpact