Informatics
December 14, 2021
Response by Judith L. Pattishall to “Informatics: Protect Yourself and the Nursing Profession from Predatory Journals” by Carter-Templeton, H., (December 12, 2019).
Dear Editor,
I am writing in response to the article written by Carter-Templeton, “Informatics: Protect Yourself and the Nursing Profession from Predatory Journals”. This is a much-needed reminder of the personal responsibility that nursing professionals must own when deciding where their expertly written articles are submitted for publication. As a young student in the 1990’s, I recall the only database of scholarly journal articles were in PubMed. Therefore, it was surprising to hear there were more than 200 predatory journals in PubMed, that spanned multiple medical disciplines in a 2017 study (Carter-Templeton, 2019). Now with the ease of creating and accessing websites, credible or non-credible, authors and readers alike are at risk of engaging with predatory journals that have limited editorial board oversight. The authors of Committee on Publication Ethics (2018) state that a journal’s website should be clear in their purpose, transparent about their ethical standards, and post their aims and scope statement.
Without credible, published research, the nursing profession is at risk, which could lead to less-than-optimal patient care practices being adopted (Kwon, 2019). In addition, the lay person seeking healthcare guidance may lack the ability to scrutinize whether the research was published by a predatory journal. As a former nurse case manager, the point made on predatory journals being short-lived is bothersome. This practice makes it practically impossible to create a list of journals to be aware of, which eerily reminds me of skilled nursing facilities who continuously change their names. These constant changes decrease the chances of nursing professionals confirming the credibility of journals and nursing facilities.
I am thankful for this article and all the warnings it has provided to my advanced practice nursing colleagues.
Sincerely,
Judith L. Pattishall, MS, BSN
MSN-Informatics student at Jacksonville University in Jacksonville, FL
References
Carter-Templeton, H. (2019). Informatics: Protect yourself and the nursing profession from predatory journals. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 25(1). https://doi.org/10.3912/ojin.vol25no01infocol01
Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). (2018). Principles of transparency and best practice in scholarly publishing. Guidelines. Retrieved from https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines-new/principles-transparency-and-best-practice-scholarly-publishing
Kwon, D. (2019, May 9). Academics raise concerns about predatory journals on PubMed. The Scientist. Retrieved from: https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/academics-raise-concerns-about-predatory-journals-on-pubmed--65856
