Background. Despite their unceasing presence, predatory journals appear to nolonger draw the attention of researchers. Their methods of luring authors haveevolved, but they seem to lure fewer authors, with the vast majority of suchauthors coming from developing countries.Objectives. This article uses the invasive species and adaptive cycle conceptsfrom ecology to analyze the trends and possible evolution of predatory journals.Methods: Calls for papers received directly or present on the Web, dedicatedscientific websites, and social media posts were the primary sources of data usedin the analysis.Results. Results of the trend analysis suggest that predatory journals haveexhausted the potential of past methods to lure authors and are now at a stage ofreinventing themselves; for example, transforming into proofreading services.Using the ecological metaphor, predatory journals are an invasive species in theresearch ecosystem, originating from the “dark” side of the economic ecosystem(Internet and e-mail-based scams). As a system, they are now approaching thecreative destruction stage, and as a species they seem to have occupied theirniche, relying on authors from the developing countries.Contributions. The ecological analogy provides a theoretical base forunderstanding and predicting the behavior of predatory journals. From a practicalperspective, the findings can be used to prevent authors from being lured by the“new generation” of predatory publishers.
展开▼
