Facilitators and barriers to dealing with questionable journals in management science
Abstract
Purpose
Scientific publishing has recently faced challenges in dealing with questionable (predatory and hijacked) journals. The presence of questionable journals in any field, including management science, will yield junk science. Although there are studies about questionable journals in other fields, these journals have not yet been examined in the field of business and management. This study aims to identify facilitators and barriers to dealing with questionable journals in management science.
Design/methodology/approach
A Delphi research method consisting of three rounds was used in this study. Data were collected from 12 experts in the first two rounds, and ten experts in the final round.
Findings
The present study shows that management science is vulnerable to questionable journals. A total of 18 barriers and eight facilitators to dealing with questionable journals in management science were found. The present study also identifies some new barriers and facilitators for avoiding questionable journals, which are specific to management science and have not been identified in previous research. Most of these barriers and facilitators were identified as “important” or “very important”. Publishers and scientific databases, government, the research community and universities and research centers were identified as critical players in overcoming challenges posed by questionable journals.
Originality/value
The number of articles that investigate predatory journals in management science is limited, and there is no research focused specifically on hijacked journals in this field. This study identifies facilitators and obstacles to dealing with predatory and hijacked journals in the field of management, by gathering opinions from experts. Thus it is the first study to examine hijacked journals in the field of management science. It is also one of the few studies that examine predatory and hijacked journals by conducting exploratory research rather than with a descriptive/conceptual approach.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors thank K. Shashok (AuthorAID in the Eastern Mediterranean) for improving the use of English in the manuscript.
Since submission of this article, the following author(s) have updated their affiliations: Aamir Raoof Memon is at the Institute for Health and Sport, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia.
Citation
Dadkhah, M., Rahimnia, F. and Memon, A.R. (2023), "Facilitators and barriers to dealing with questionable journals in management science", Library Hi Tech, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-09-2022-0420
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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