I got asked to write a small article for a non-peer-reviewed journal and was pretty excited about it. However some of the faculty at my institution referred to it as a "throwaway journal." What does this mean? At first I thought it referred to something you throw away without even looking at (i.e. not very important or reputed), but my friend said it simply meant something that isn't peer-reviewed and doesn't cost money to subscribe. So what is it?
What is a throwaway journal?
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cowme
It's the former (a pretty meaningless journal that isn't very impressive to publish in). However, it's still more impressive than an empty section on your publication section of your cv. Not to mention, they require a small fraction of the effort that a major journal pub usually does
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Usually it is one of those journals that is mostly ads with a few non-peer reviewed articles included here and there. Not everybody can be published in JAMA, I say do it, if you get better publications in the future you can always just not include it on your CV...
Survivor DO
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Just be careful, the new scam is to charge you tons to submit to these throwaways. They solicit a submission and then they invoice you for thousands of dollars.
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cowme
I'm fairly certain the PI/institution would fund that
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Solution: Don't pay.
Yeah I figured this was the case. I'll do it anyway since it requires such little effort and can't really hurt. I was looking at the editorial board, though, and a lot of them are well-known bigshots in the field. Weird that they would play such prominent roles on something like this.
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I'm a medical writer and it's well known in my profession that there are hundreds (thousands?) predatory open access publishers. In fact, sometimes they even put big names on the editorial board and these physicians/researchers have no idea.
A library scientist took it upon himself to investigate predatory open access publishers and has compiled what is known as Beall's List. He documents the process he goes about choosing who goes on the list. I suggest you make sure your journal isn't on the list and if it is, investigate further.
http://scholarlyoa.com/publishers/
Hope you find this useful.
A library scientist took it upon himself to investigate predatory open access publishers and has compiled what is known as Beall's List. He documents the process he goes about choosing who goes on the list. I suggest you make sure your journal isn't on the list and if it is, investigate further.
http://scholarlyoa.com/publishers/
Hope you find this useful.
mmmcdowe
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Often they just agree to be an editor and pass the effort along to underlings like residents/medical students for the throw away journals.
As my PI likes to say (not necessarily in this context), garbage in garbage out.
If you give us the field/general topic we can probably suggest a few free, low impact journals to consider.
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Pay to publish and "throw aways" are 2 separate issues.
Throw aways typically don't publish original research (other than case reports or occasional case series), but do often provide good reviews and case reports. Docs in private practice often read the throw aways. I like reading "Current Psychiatry"
Many open access journals are scam journals that mimic reputable journals and publish low quality research (which they charge you to publish)
Throw aways typically don't publish original research (other than case reports or occasional case series), but do often provide good reviews and case reports. Docs in private practice often read the throw aways. I like reading "Current Psychiatry"
Many open access journals are scam journals that mimic reputable journals and publish low quality research (which they charge you to publish)
yes "throw-away" journal means that they'll accept almost any manuscript to publish..some of these journals are not legit but some throw-away journals are considered as a "safety" for researchers and for research that isn't good enough to be published in more legit journals
