How should we treat those taken in by predatory journals? | Times Higher Education

" ... One trend has been the flood of 'hijacked journals', which are, essentially, counterfeit websites for already-existing, mostly print-only, genuine journals. Last month, Mehrdad Jalalian, editor-in-chief of the medical and health sciences journal Electronic Physician, based in Mashhad, Iran, reported on the story of 90 hijacked journals, which make money when unsuspecting academics pay a fee to publish in them. 'I do not believe that publishing in fake or hijacked journals is [necessarily] unethical conduct,' says Dr Jalalian, given that the authors of these articles may not be to blame. Instead, he adds, their institutions must also be held accountable for not training them on publication ethics.   However, one does have to sympathise with the scholars who have been tricked in such a way. Researchers worldwide have contacted Dr Jalalian to express their concern about their academic credibility being damaged after naively publishing research in hijacked journals. Dr Jalalian, thus, raises an important question in his recent editorial: 'Is the legitimate author allowed to republish her/his article in a legitimate journal – or would that constitute duplicate publication?' It’s a question that has no easy answer, but one that I think needs to addressed, if not for the sake of the academics that have been conned, then for the legitimate research that is locked up on these dodgy websites ..."