Lost in translation

Abstract

Along with globalization and the development of the Internet, new phenomenon have appeared and multiplied: international open access (OA) scientific journals in which manuscripts can be published for a fee.  It should be stipulated that the bulk of the OA journals are published by well-respected publishers conducting peer review of the manuscripts and producing high-quality content. Hpowever, according to some estimates, at least a quarter of OA journals are "predatory", ready to publish articles for money on the day they are submitted without any selection and review. Unfortunately, predatory journals can be considered "journals of the poor", in which researchers from countries with low per capita income have to publish their manuscripts. The most frequent authors of predatory scientific journals (34.7%) are Indians, followed by residents of other Asian countries (25.6%) and Africans (16.4%). For the Europeans and inhabitants of North America, these magazines are less popular: 8.8 and 9.2% respectively. What is not surprising: all self-respecting universities prohibit their employees from printing in questionable OA journals. As Russian researchers will feel ever-increasing pressure to publish manuscripts in international journals in English, the likelihood of getting into the claws of a predatory journals will increase. The author believes that gradually it is necessary to transform well-known Russian journals into officially bilingual ones, and then, perhaps, accept manuscripts only in English.