Abstract
This paper examines the perspectives of university teachers in Bangladesh regarding predatory journals, assesses their knowledge of the characteristics of such journals, investigates the factors that might influence their submission of papers to such journals, and explores their views on how universities can contribute to the identification of predatory journals. A total of 391 university teachers participated in this study. Chi-square tests were conducted to examine the relationship between participants’ demographic characteristics and their perceptions of open access and predatory journals. The findings revealed that several demographic variables were significantly related to university teachers’ perceptions of predatory journals. Among the respondents who reported possessing a good knowledge of predatory journals (n = 181), their understanding levels were assessed by assigning a score of ‘1’ for each correct answer and ‘0’ for each incorrect/unsure answer to 18 characteristics associated with predatory publishing. The scores obtained by this group of participants were transformed into percentiles and were categorized into three different understanding levels: poor, medium and high. The results of independent sample t-tests and ANOVA found significant differences in total correctness scores based on gender, designation and teaching experience. The study revealed that only 7% of participants had a high level of understanding of the characteristics, despite claiming to have a good knowledge of predatory journals. The findings of this study highlight the need to design and implement interventions to increase the awareness levels and combat the prevalence of predatory publishing in the academic community.
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The dataset is available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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All authors actively participated in the study design and the development of the questionnaire. Umme Habiba was responsible for collecting data and writing the initial draft of the paper. S.M. Zabed Ahmed led the data analysis, edited, and finalized the manuscript. All authors provided valuable feedback and suggestions on earlier versions of the paper. The submitted manuscript has been carefully reviewed, read, and approved by all authors.
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Habiba, U., Ahmed, S.M.Z. Understanding and Mitigating the Menace of Predatory Journals: Perspectives of University Teachers in Bangladesh. J Acad Ethics (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-024-09538-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-024-09538-3