Researchers’ Quest for Productivity and Visibility: the Growing Problem of Predatory Publishing in the Republic of Moldova

Publishing is one of the central components of scientific endeavor and has undergone significant developments lately, due to the digitisation of scholarly communication and consequent emergence and uptake of open access movement. This also led to the rise of “predatory publishing”, motivated by profit and compromising research integrity. Similar to fake news, predatory publishing outlets “are characterized by false or misleading information”, often spreading misinformation in the academic community and corrupting science. Evidence shows that the Global South and low-resources, developing countries (e.g. Republic of Moldova) are particularly prone to predatory journals and conferences. This paper examines the extent to which the scientific community in the Republic of Moldova is affected by predatory, pseudo-scientific publications, based on a case study. It then comes with several recommendations to tackle the issue of predatory publishing, tailored to the national academic environment.