On Wednesday, March 15th, 2017, Komar Research Center held a seminar on the fake and predatory journals and publishers that are targeting the researchers based in Kurdistan-Iraq universities. Dr. Khalid Omer from the University of Sulaimani was our guest speaker.
Predatory publishers and journals are becoming one of the most dangerous threats to academia and publications. Scholarly open-access journals have received considerable attention from publishers and researchers due to free access to those journals. Predatory publishers, which publish counterfeit or “fake” journals to exploit the open-access model in which the author pays. These predatory publishers are dishonest and lack transparency. They aim to dupe researchers, especially those inexperienced in scholarly communication.
In 2010, there were 18 predatory publishers, while by the end of 2016, nearly 882 predatory publishers were established, some of these publishers issuing more than 100 journals! The ultimate consequences of such publishers and journals will be catastrophic and serious action will be needed.
Dr. Khalid Omer presentation focused on the mechanisms to avoid these journals and what are the best practice to publish in reputable journals. Komar University of Science and Technology faculty members attended the seminar and had a details discussion on the issue.
The seminar concluded with presenting appreciation letter to our guest speaker, Dr. Khalid Omer, for his excellent seminar.
Komar Research Center has offered his support to the faculty members with their publications including, but not limited to, choosing suitable journals, proof-reading, English editing, access to online databases, etc.
The event announcement and more details can be found HERE and the slides can be downloaded HERE.
