Predatory Journals Exposed: A Pakistani Doctor’s Embarrassing Mistake

The CV That Fell Apart

Dr. Bushra Fatima walked into The Research Clinic with her chin held high and a printed CV in her hand.

“Sir,” she said, placing the document on my desk before I had even greeted the group, “I want to clarify something. I know some people here think I am starting from zero.” She glanced at Dr. Sumaira Talib. “But I already have three publications. Three. I have been doing research since my house job.”

The room shifted uncomfortably. Dr. Hammad Ali looked impressed. Dr. Hassan Raza looked envious. Sumaira said nothing but watched carefully. Dr. Zunaira Malik looked down at her own empty publication record and felt the familiar pang of inadequacy.

I picked up Bushra’s CV and read the three entries (the journal names in this story are made up):

“Prevalence of Anemia in Pregnant Women: A Hospital-Based Study.” International Archives of Clinical Medicine and Research. 2024.

“Knowledge and Attitude Towards Family Planning Among Women of Reproductive Age.” World Journal of Medical Science and Health Care. 2024.

“Outcomes of Emergency Caesarean Sections in a Tertiary Care Hospital.” Global Research Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2025.

Three papers. Three different journals. All published within eighteen months. On the surface, it looked like an impressive start to a research career.

I set the CV down gently and asked a question I already knew the answer to: “Bushra, can you tell me the HEC category of each of these journals?”

She hesitated. “I… I think they are international journals, sir. They have ‘International’ and ‘World’ in their names. They must be indexed somewhere.”

“Did you check which HEC category each journal falls into, or whether it is on the PMDC approved list of journals, before submitting?”

Silence.

“Did you check PubMed? Scopus? Web of Science?”

More silence. The room had gone very still.

I did not want to humiliate Bushra. She is talented, ambitious, and hardworking. But this moment, this exact moment, was one of the most important teaching opportunities in the entire programme. Because what happened to Bushra happens to many Pakistani doctors every year.

“Bushra,” I said carefully, “none of these three journals falls into any HEC category, and none is on the PMDC approved list. None of them is indexed in PubMed, Scopus, or Web of Science. None of them has a verifiable editorial board, a transparent peer review process, or a legitimate impact factor.” I paused. “These are predatory journals.”

The word landed in the room like a stone dropped into still water.

Bushra’s face went through several emotions in rapid succession: confusion, denial, anger, and finally, a long, painful moment of realization. Her voice was quiet when she spoke. “But they sent me a certificate of publication. They have a website. They have an ISSN number.”

“All of those things can be faked or obtained without meeting any quality standards,” I said. “An ISSN number costs nothing and requires no quality assessment. A website can be built in an afternoon. A certificate of publication from a predatory journal is worth less than the paper it is printed on. I am sorry, Bushra. I truly am. But you need to hear this now, before you build an entire career on a foundation that will collapse at the first serious review.”

Bushra sat down. She did not speak for the rest of the session. But she listened to every word. And what I said next was for her, and for every Pakistani doctor who has fallen into the same trap.

What Are Predatory Journals and Why Do They Target Pakistan?

Predatory journals are fake or substandard publications that exist solely to make money. They charge authors a publication fee (called an Article Processing Charge, or APC) but provide little or no legitimate peer review, no real editorial oversight, and no meaningful quality control. They mimic the appearance of real journals: professional-looking websites, scientific-sounding names, claims of indexing, and official-looking acceptance letters. But beneath the surface, there is nothing. Your paper goes in, your money goes out, and your research disappears into a void that no serious academic, journal editor, or promotion committee will ever find or respect.

Pakistan is one of the countries that predatory journals target heavily. There are several reasons for this. First, the pressure on Pakistani doctors to publish is enormous. As we discussed in Post 3, PMDC requires publications for promotion, CPSP now requires a published article from the synopsis before the FCPS Part-II theory examination, and academic institutions increasingly evaluate faculty on research output. Second, research methodology training is insufficient in most Pakistani medical colleges, leaving doctors vulnerable to scams they cannot recognize. Third, predatory publishers know that a doctor in Lahore or Karachi who receives an email saying “Dear Dr. Ahmed, we have reviewed your profile and would like to invite you to submit your research to our esteemed journal” will feel flattered, not suspicious.

I looked at the team. “How many of you have received unsolicited emails from journals inviting you to submit papers?”

Every hand went up. Even Zunaira’s.

“Those emails are one of the commonest signs of a predatory journal. Reputable journals rarely send flattering mass emails begging for submissions. Some genuine journals do send calls for papers, so an email alone does not prove anything. But if a journal is chasing you with praise and promises of fast publication, ask yourself: why does it need to recruit authors this way?”

The 10 Red Flags of Predatory Journals

I wrote the following list on the whiteboard, and I want you to memorize it. These are the warning signs that a journal is predatory:

1. Unsolicited invitation emails. The journal contacts you first, often with flattering language about your “distinguished research profile.” Reputable journals rarely solicit submissions this way.
2. Suspiciously fast acceptance. Real peer review takes weeks to months. If your paper is “accepted” within days of submission, with no substantive review comments, it was never reviewed.
3. No indexing in legitimate databases. Check Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed/MEDLINE and DOAJ (the indexes HEC now uses for its W, X and Y categories) and the PMDC approved list of journals. If the journal does not appear in any of these, treat it with extreme suspicion. Remember that a journal claiming to be indexed is not the same as being indexed: check the database yourself.
4. Fake or unverifiable editorial board. Look up the editors. Are they real people with real academic affiliations? Can you find them on Google Scholar or institutional websites? Predatory journals often list fake names or use real names without permission.
5. Vague or absent peer review policy. Legitimate journals describe their review process clearly: single-blind, double-blind, number of reviewers, average review time. Predatory journals either do not describe their process or make impossibly fast promises.
6. Publication fee demanded upfront or after instant acceptance. While many legitimate open access journals charge APCs, the fee is transparent, clearly stated on the website, and disclosed before submission, not sprung on you after a fake “peer review.”
7. Journal name mimics a reputable journal. Predatory publishers deliberately choose names very close to established journals, sometimes changing only one word or one letter. Others pick grand names, like the made-up “Global Journal of Universal Medical Excellence.” Always match the exact title and ISSN with the real journal’s own website.
8. Claims a fake impact factor. Some predatory journals display “impact factors” from fake indexing services like “Global Impact Factor” or “Cosmos Impact Factor.” The only legitimate Impact Factor comes from Clarivate’s Journal Citation Reports (JCR). Scopus CiteScore is another genuine metric. Most other “impact factors” shown on journal websites are meaningless.
9. Publishes across unrelated disciplines. A journal that claims to publish in medicine, engineering, law, agriculture, and computer science simultaneously is not a journal. It is a content mill.
10. Poor website quality and grammatical errors. Broken links, stock photos, misspellings, inconsistent formatting, and no physical address or contact information beyond a Gmail account. If the journal’s own website cannot pass basic quality checks, how can it review your science?

Hammad, who had nearly fallen into the same trap with his “International Archives of Advanced Medical Research” in Post 4, was nodding vigorously. “Sir, mine had at least five of these red flags. I just did not know what to look for.”

“That is exactly the problem,” I said. “No one teaches you this in medical school. You learn anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, but nobody teaches you how to tell a real journal from a fake one. Until now.”

How to Verify Any Journal: A Step-by-Step Guide

Before you submit a single paper to any journal, run it through this verification process. It takes ten minutes and can save your entire academic career.

Step 1: Work out the HEC category and check the PMDC list: HEC’s old Journal Recognition System (HJRS) is no longer used; it applied only until 30 September 2024. Under the HEC Journals and Publications Policy 2024 (amended in November 2025), a journal’s category now comes straight from where it is indexed:

• W: journals in the Web of Science Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) or Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI).
• X: journals in the Web of Science Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), plus some Pakistani Scopus-indexed journals that meet extra HEC criteria.
• Y: other Scopus-indexed journals, journals in MEDLINE/PubMed, CNKI or DOAJ, and national journals recommended by HEC committees.

HEC also excludes any journal on the Cabells list of predatory journals, and its policy makes authors responsible for checking that a journal is genuine and not hijacked or cloned. Nobody will check for you. Then check the PMDC approved list of journals, because PMDC keeps its own list for promotion. If a journal fits no HEC category and is not on the PMDC list, walk away. Even a listed journal should still pass the red-flag checks above.

Step 2: Search PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science: These databases have selection criteria, so indexing is a useful check. But it is a check, not a guarantee. PubMed also includes journals that are not in MEDLINE, because their articles are deposited in PubMed Central. Scopus regularly drops titles that stop meeting its standards. Search for the journal’s exact name and ISSN on the Web of Science Master Journal List (mjl.clarivate.com), Scopus Sources (scopus.com/sources) and the NLM Catalog, and see whether it is still indexed today. Remember that the HEC category changes when the indexing changes. Do not assume. Verify.

Step 3: Use Think.Check.Submit: You may hear about Beall’s list, created by librarian Jeffrey Beall. It was taken down in 2017 and is now out of date, so do not rely on it or on copies of it. Instead, go to thinkchecksubmit.org and work through its simple checklist. Use it together with the indexing checks above and the PMDC list. HEC itself relies on the Cabells predatory list, which is a paid service, so ask your university library whether it has access. If the journal fails these checks, walk away.

Step 4: Use the DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals): If the journal claims to be open access, check whether it is listed in DOAJ. DOAJ lists only fully open access journals that meet its quality criteria. Being listed is a good sign. But many genuine journals are hybrid (subscription journals with some open access articles), and hybrid journals are not in DOAJ. So “not in DOAJ” alone is not a red flag. Be careful only when a fully open access journal that charges an APC is missing from DOAJ and also shows other red flags.

Step 5: Verify the ISSN: Every journal should have an International Standard Serial Number. You can verify ISSNs at issn.org. But remember: having an ISSN only means the number was registered. It does not guarantee quality. Many predatory journals have valid ISSNs.

Step 6: Examine the Editorial Board: Look up each editor on Google Scholar or their institutional website. Are they real researchers with real publications? Do they have expertise in the journal’s field? If you cannot verify a single board member, the journal is likely fake.

Step 7: Read Published Articles: Open two or three recent articles published in the journal. Are they well-written? Do they follow standard scientific structure (IMRAD)? Are the references current and relevant? Poor quality published articles indicate poor quality peer review, or no peer review at all.

The Real Cost of Publishing in Predatory Journals

Then Bushra spoke again, quietly. Something from a few months ago had suddenly made sense to her. She crossed her arms, but her voice was steady.

“I applied for a part-time research associate post at a private medical college,” she said. “I was shortlisted based on my experience. During the interview, the selection committee asked me about my publications. I presented them proudly. Three papers in eighteen months.”

She paused. “The chairman of the committee pulled out a laptop, searched for each journal in Web of Science and Scopus, and showed the screen to the rest of the panel. None of my journals fell into any HEC category. The room went quiet. One member asked: ‘Did you not check before submitting?’ I did not have an answer. I told myself the databases were incomplete, because these were international journals.”

“They did not just reject those papers,” Bushra continued. “They questioned my judgment. They wondered whether I did not know the difference, which made me look incompetent, or whether I knew and was trying to pad my CV, which made me look dishonest. I was not offered the position. Until today, I did not understand why.”

The room was completely silent. Dr. Junaid Rashid, who had been skeptical about research from day one, looked shaken. Even his years of clinical experience would not protect him from this kind of reputational damage.

I addressed the team: “The cost of publishing in predatory journals is not just a wasted publication fee. The real costs are these:”

• Wasted research: Your data, your months of work, your original findings, buried in a journal that nobody reads, nobody cites, and nobody respects.
• Career damage: Selection committees, supervisors, and peers will question your credibility. In Pakistan’s academic system, a predatory publication can be worse than no publication at all.
• Ethical implications: Some institutions and funding bodies now consider publishing in known predatory journals as a form of research misconduct.
• Contamination of the literature: Papers published without proper peer review may contain errors, false claims, or fabricated data. When these papers are cited by others, bad science spreads.

Bushra’s Decision: The Path Forward

After the session, Bushra stayed behind. The others filed out quietly, each processing the lesson in their own way. Hammad looked relieved that he had caught his mistake early. Hassan was already checking his phone, looking up a journal he had been considering. Zunaira, who had felt inadequate about having zero publications, suddenly realized that zero was better than three in the wrong places.

Bushra stood by my desk. “Sir, what do I do now? Those three papers, do I remove them from my CV?”

“No. Do not hide them,” I said. “Hiding a publication looks far worse if someone finds it later. Keep them on your CV honestly, but never count them as recognised publications for PMDC or CPSP. You can also write to each journal and ask for a formal withdrawal. Then we build something real.”

“But that means I have nothing that counts. I have zero real publications.”

“You have zero publications in the same way that Zunaira has zero publications, with one important difference. You have already conducted three studies. You have data. You have experience with data collection and writing. That is not nothing, Bushra. That is a head start.”

Her eyes widened. “You mean I can rewrite those papers and submit them to real journals?”

“Not in the way you think. Those papers are already published. Sending the same data to another journal is duplicate publication, and that is misconduct. It is only possible if the first journal formally withdraws or retracts the paper, and you tell the new editor the full history. Many predatory journals never reply to such requests. So the safer path is this: you now know how to collect data and write. We use that experience on your synopsis study on antenatal corticosteroids and neonatal respiratory outcomes. We design it properly, and this time we choose the journal properly. Your first real publication will come from doing it right.”

Something shifted in Bushra’s expression. Not the competitive ambition that usually drove her. Something quieter. Something more like determination tempered by humility.

“I will not make this mistake again,” she said.

“I know you will not,” I replied. “And by the time you share your story with other doctors (because you will share it), you will prevent many of them from making it either.”

Key Takeaways

• Predatory journals are a serious problem in Pakistan, and many doctors fall victim every year. These journals charge fees but provide no legitimate peer review, no indexing, and no academic value.
• Memorize the 10 red flags: unsolicited invitations, instant acceptance, no database indexing, fake editorial boards, vague review policies, surprise fees, copycat names, fake impact factors, multi-discipline publishing, and poor website quality.
• Always verify before submitting: work out the HEC category from Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed/MEDLINE and DOAJ indexing, then check the PMDC approved list and Think.Check.Submit. Indexing is a check, not a guarantee, so look for red flags too. Ten minutes of checking saves years of regret.
• Publishing in predatory journals is not neutral. It is negative. It damages your credibility, wastes your research, and can be treated as misconduct by some institutions.
• Recovery is possible. Do not hide predatory papers and do not send the same data to another journal (that is duplicate publication). List them honestly or ask for a formal withdrawal, learn from the mistake, and put your skills into a new, well-designed study. A mistake does not have to be the end of your research career. It can be the beginning of doing it right.