4 ms·

If a paper is published after 2010 and the corresponding author's email is from a free service (gmail, yahoo, yandex) or is not from an institution that is a un

If a paper is published after 2010 and the corresponding author's email is from a free service (gmail, yahoo, yandex) or is not from an institution that is a university or firm with an R&D department, you shouldn't trust the journal or the paper. It's a simple litmus test and while it generates many false negatives, there are almost zero false positives. EDIT: At least, for biomedical papers... can't speak for other fields

paviva 10y ago
Actually, not true at all for medical papers. For instance, take the Annals of Emergency Medicine (http://www.annemergmed.com/ http://www.annemergmed.com/). More than 50% of corresponding authors use gmail.
- jszymborski 10y ago
  While it's not predatory, I still wouldn't trust it. It's way to easy for journals to fall prey to peer-review rings when they accept email addresses that are easily spoofed [0]. [0] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/10/scholarly-journal-retracts-60-articles-smashes-peer-review-ring/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/1...
woliveirajr 10y ago
Disagree. Sometimes the main (corresponding) author is exactly a Master or PhD student, and will leave the institution after submitting the article but before it is published. Or even a Professor will change the institution he is in. I prefer to read a paper or article by its merits. E-mail from the author had little impact in that sense. (Speaking for areas outside biomedical papers, for those, I don' know.)
- jszymborski 10y ago
  The peer-review system, as very flawed as it is, protects us from a certain level of bad and in some cases fake science. It's not very difficult to establish a peer-review ring when you use freely available emails, and journals are increasingly aware of this [0,1]. That's why I'm often suspect of journals who let this slide, because it's a sign they don't screen very well. In 2017, in light of the widely successful and low-barrier ways to game the peer-review system, I don't buy your "leaving an institution" argument. Corresponding author is more commonly the professor than the main author, and faculty at academic institutions almost always have "e-mail for life" privileges. [0] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/10/scholarly-journal-retracts-60-articles-smashes-peer-review-ring/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/1... [1] http://www.nature.com/news/publishing-the-peer-review-scam-1.16400 http://www.nature.com/news/publishing-the-peer-review-scam-1...
gjjrfcbugxbhf 10y ago
Disagree early career scientists move frequently and many prefer to use correspondence addresses they will keep. However the institution and the postal address are worth glancing at.

paviva 10y ago

Actually, not true at all for medical papers. For instance, take the Annals of Emergency Medicine (http://www.annemergmed.com/ http://www.annemergmed.com/). More than 50% of corresponding authors use gmail.

jszymborski 10y ago
While it's not predatory, I still wouldn't trust it. It's way to easy for journals to fall prey to peer-review rings when they accept email addresses that are easily spoofed [0]. [0] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/10/scholarly-journal-retracts-60-articles-smashes-peer-review-ring/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/1...

woliveirajr 10y ago

Disagree. Sometimes the main (corresponding) author is exactly a Master or PhD student, and will leave the institution after submitting the article but before it is published. Or even a Professor will change the institution he is in. I prefer to read a paper or article by its merits. E-mail from the author had little impact in that sense. (Speaking for areas outside biomedical papers, for those, I don' know.)

jszymborski 10y ago
The peer-review system, as very flawed as it is, protects us from a certain level of bad and in some cases fake science. It's not very difficult to establish a peer-review ring when you use freely available emails, and journals are increasingly aware of this [0,1]. That's why I'm often suspect of journals who let this slide, because it's a sign they don't screen very well. In 2017, in light of the widely successful and low-barrier ways to game the peer-review system, I don't buy your "leaving an institution" argument. Corresponding author is more commonly the professor than the main author, and faculty at academic institutions almost always have "e-mail for life" privileges. [0] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/10/scholarly-journal-retracts-60-articles-smashes-peer-review-ring/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/1... [1] http://www.nature.com/news/publishing-the-peer-review-scam-1.16400 http://www.nature.com/news/publishing-the-peer-review-scam-1...

gjjrfcbugxbhf 10y ago

Disagree early career scientists move frequently and many prefer to use correspondence addresses they will keep. However the institution and the postal address are worth glancing at.