The Dissemination of Predatory Journals in US Policy Documents

This study collected and analyzed data on the use of so-called "predatory journals" in US policy documents from January 2017 to October 2022 and investigates the impact of predatory journals on policy decisions by analyzing 1,480,181 policy documents. The findings reveal that predatory journals are cited in policy documents, but at a relatively low rate of 0.5%. However, the study highlights the potential impact that predatory journals can have on policy decisions and suggests that non-government documents may serve as a means of information laundering. Additionally, the proportions of policy documents that cite predatory journal articles are heterogeneous in different topics, with Religion and Belief having the largest proportion followed by Weather. The top 5 cited predatory journals are all from biomedical fields, which is a concerning trend due to their significant public health implications. Moreover, approximately half of the citations on predatory journal articles are from just two journals - Oncotarget and Journal of Physical Therapy Science. The semantic similarity pattern suggests that the information from the original predatory journal articles is disseminated into further policy documents, indicating the existence of information laundering in the collected dataset. Policy makers should be cautious when citing articles from predatory journals and should consider the credibility and reliability of the sources they use to inform their decisions. The results provide insights into the prevalence and potential mechanisms of the use of predatory journals in US policy documents.