One of the most important parts of any search for information–whether academic or for personal reasons–has always been to think critically about the information you find; to be skeptical, to not assume the information must be true and/or objective just because it happens to come from a particular source or person.
No one is entirely objective. And we/human beings are easily misled. Our entire digital information structure today (the Internet, social media, etc.) has been almost completely taken over by corporate interests with the bottom line of gaining as much power and making as much money as possible. Propaganda is rife; your personal data is collected, bought, and sold; your interests are never a priority, no matter what you are told.
In this world, becoming a savvy and skeptical user of information is not optional, it’s a requirement.
See —
Knowledge and understanding can overcome fear and anxiety
Revisiting: Understand the context of information important to you; reduce the fear and anxiety
Stop being manipulated! Take charge of the information in your life
The base of research that underlies our world (medicine, science, etc.) is being rapidly compromised.
Key signs of fake publications
Here are indicators that an academic paper or book may have come from a paper mill, a predatory publisher, a political group, or other scammer. Keep these in mind as you search for and find relevant journal articles, book chapters, and books.
1. Check the journal; for a book, check the publisher
The Retraction Watch Database can be a useful tool to check to see if the journal has a history of article retractions.
Beall’s List is also a useful source for identifying “potential predatory journals and publishers.”
2. Generic or strange titles
One possible sign that a publication may be fake is the title. Real research (especially scientific research) is very specific and the titles of legitimate articles can be long and esoteric. Fake publications often have more generic titles or titles that don’t seem to fit the subject matter.
But, this isn’t always the case. For any of these indicators, be sure to check more than one of these factors when trying to decide if a paper or book is legitimate or not.
3. Bibliography contains fake, self-citing, or outdated sources
Review the references of the article or book (or, at least, a sample of them if there are many). Are they valid? Are they actual publications? Are the referenced papers connected to the topic of the article or book? Does the author(s) cite themselves frequently? Does the bibliography contain recent references (as well as older ones) or are all the references over five years old?
References that are not actual publications, many references that are not connected to the main subject, significant self-citation, and a bibliography with no recent references can all be red flags.
4. Authors aren’t real, or have different backgrounds
Journal articles and books from paper mills, predatory publishers, and other scammers may seem to have an unusual author(s). The authors may not be real people or, even if they are real, their research backgrounds may be outside the subject matter of the paper or book. A quick check of an academic database (found through a library) or even a Google search can help you determine if the name represents a real person who does research in that subject area.
5. Figures are fabricated, inconsistent with the content of the publication, or are copies from elsewhere
Figures and images in an article or book may be another clue that the publication is fraudulent. If you have the knowledge/expertise, review images, tables, etc. to make sure they match and make sense with the article’s or book’s contents.
As an alternative to that, you can use Google to see if tables, images, etc. from an article or book also appear in other publications.
It can be difficult to tell if an article or book may be a fake. And, as time and technology (like AI) marches on, it is only getting harder.
If you suspect a publication and you are a student, your best option is to talk to your teacher, professor, or a librarian.
The five indicators above are not foolproof. But they can help you to be skeptical and critical, especially when the paper or book appears to be important to your work.
Questions? Please let me know (engelk@grinnell.edu).
