Nightmare of publishing hard worked research in predatory journal

Sir, In the world of academics and constantly updating medical sciences, the scientific community is facing the big havoc created by the world of predatory journals. This communication focuses on the main probable observed reasons why the scientific community is falling prey to this world of predatory journals. Earlier promotion criteria in medical colleges mentioned publications as a desirable criterion. The new Competency-Based Medical Education Curriculum guidelines released by the National Medical Commission (NMC), regarding the promotion criteria of faculties in medical colleges from 2021, include publications as mandatory criteria.1 The medical college faculties deal with the overburden of many responsibilities such as teaching–learning activities, examination duties, administrative duties, admission duties, NMC inspection, National Assessment, and Accreditation Council activities, National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories accreditation, National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers accreditation, patient care, etc., along with dealing with the issue of scarcities of faculties in the medical colleges. To fulfill these promotion criteria and to deal with the research culture requirement in the government and private academic institutes, the faculties along with undergraduate and postgraduate students are undertaking various research projects. The research process is time-consuming, but it is only the beginning of the problem. After writing the paper, one has to publish it in an indexed journal. Various journals are available free of cost and are indexed in various reputed and quality indexing agencies. While submitting the research work for publication, it has to undergo a rigorous peer review process and only after that, the research work is published. The requirement for increased publications for better ranking has resulted in the business of online predatory journals which trap faculties and students by their easy availability and promise of rapid publication, of course at a high cost. But is it difficult to identify predatory journals? These journals do not follow the peer review process and promise almost immediate publications due to which the busy faculties and students fall prey to them. These journals falsely claim for the indexing in the various approved agencies which needs to be cross-checked before sending for publications. Predatory journals often mimic titles or logos of prestigious, well-known journals to confuse less experienced researchers.2 To avoid these pitfalls, authors should make efforts on searching proper approved indexing agency journals list before sending them for publication. The cross-checking should be done from an updated list released by indexing agencies periodically. Whether these are approved or not by NMC for promotion criteria, has to be cross-checked. The most recently approved indexing agencies include Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, EMBASE, DOAJ, etc., Further, there is a need to have some regulatory control on these predatory journals with strict provisions in the form of penalties like blacklisting the names of journals. Thus, we hope the new regulatory guidelines do come into existence shortly to protect the world of scientific literature world from these predatory journals. Financial support and sponsorship Nil. Conflicts of interest There are no conflicts of interest.