title: Trends in scientific publishing: Dark clouds loom large.
abstract: The world wide web has brought about a paradigm shift in the way medical research is published and accessed. The ease with which a new journal can be started/hosted by publishing start-ups is unprecedented. The tremendous capabilities of the world wide web and the open access revolution when combined with a highly profitable business have attracted unscrupulous fraudulent operators to the publishing industry. The intent of these fraudulent publishers is solely driven by profit with utter disregard to scientific content, peer reviews and ethics. This phenomenon has been referred to as "predatory publishing". The "international" tag of such journals often betrays their true origins. The gold open access model of publishing, where the author pays the publisher, when coupled with a non-existent peer review threatens to blur the distinction between science and pseudoscience. The average researcher needs to be made more aware of this clear and present danger to the scientific community. Prevention is better than cure.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, PGIMER, Chandigarh, India. Electronic address: vinnywilson@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Pulikottil Wilson
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Vinny
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, PGIMER, Chandigarh, India. Electronic address: vishnuvy16@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Venugopalan Y
authors.initials: VY
authors.lastname: Vishnu
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, PGIMER, Chandigarh, India. Electronic address: vivekl44@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Vivek
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lal
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends*; D010380:Peer Review / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends*; D011643:Publishing / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends*; D015871:Scientific Misconduct / Q000639:trends*
keywords: Open access; Predatory publishing; Pseudoscience