Cabells

From Boaty McBoatface to “predatory journals,” names tend to stick - especially when they capture a real problem. In our latest blog, Simon Linacre explores why attempts to rebrand #PredatoryPublishing may miss the mark and why clarity still matters in research integrity.

#PredatoryJournals

Opportunities & Threats: Academic Media The task ahead is clear, says Anke Beck: to harness AI not as a threat but as a catalyst.

"Without open licenses and open data, transparency remains selective and accountability incomplete." Read more about The Opportunities & Threats in #Academic Media here: www.inpublishing.co.uk/articles/opp... #OpenAccess #Publishing

WASET of time This week’s blog is based on an email Cabells received recently from an academic in Tunisia expressing their concern regarding a conference they had submitted papers to, and guidance on how to withdraw their submissions. This is a common situation that researchers find themselves in, and with the kind permission of Professor Chokri Ben Salah, we are presenting their case so others might gain some support and insight into the problems caused by predatory conferences.

Even experienced researchers can be misled by #PredatoryConferences.

In our latest blog, we share the story of a scholar who unknowingly submitted to a WASET event mimicking a legitimate conference - and what happened next.

Know the warnings signs. Protect your work.

#ResearchIntegrity

In case you missed it, Cabells launched Journalytics STEM last week! It provides info on over 7k verified #journals, covering #Science, #Technology, #Engineering, and #Mathematics. Learn more here: cabells.com/solutions/jo... #Publishing

I am attending London Book Fair on Tuesday 10 and Wednesday 11 March with @cabells.com . If you're around and would like to meet up, please send me a message. Very much looking forward to catching up!

Next-Level Decisions After several years in development, Cabells launches its new Journalytics STEM product today, offering the same next-level journal data as its companion Academic and Medicine products to support the best possible decision-making across STEM subjects. It’s taken time to put together Journalytics STEM simply because there are a lot of journals to review, curate, and assess in this field, with well over 7,000 journals included across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics areas.

Next-level decisions start here.

Today we’re launching Journalytics STEM — bringing curated, verified journal data across 7,000+ #STEM titles together with Predatory Reports (20,000+ #PredatoryJournals) to power smarter publishing choices.

Check out our latest blog to learn more.

Cabells launches Journalytics STEM database - Research Information Database includes more than 7,800 journals across 26 STEM subject areas including engineering and mathematics

Cabells launches Journalytics STEM database

www.researchinformation.info/news/cabells...

Database includes more than 7,800 journals across 26 STEM subject areas including engineering and mathematics

@cabells.com

It's nearly here.
New journal insights. Additional predatory protection. All on one platform.
Launching tomorrow.
#Research #Journals #ScholarlyPublishing #ScholComm

Something new for STEM publishing launches this week.

Built for clarity. Built for protection. Built for better decisions.

More soon. 🚀
#STEM #ScholarlyPublishing

20,000 Problems for Researchers As many readers will have noted last week, Cabells’ Predatory Reports database went over 20,000 journals listed for the first time. This is significant not just because that is a LOT of journals – with James Butcher asking if this might be as much as 20% of all published journals in his Journalology newsletter this week - but also because it represents fraud and deception on such a broad scale. 

#PredatoryPublishing just crossed a troubling milestone: 20,000+ journals included in Cabells’ Predatory Reports.

Our latest blog details what’s behind the growth, how evolving tactics (including AI) are shaping our updated criteria, and why rigor still matters.

#AcademicPubliishing

Cabells Expands Predatory Reports Database to 20,000 Journals Cabells' Predatory Reports database now includes over 20,000 journals, empowering academics to navigate and verify reliable publishing options.

What sets Cabells apart?
📌 Transparent criteria
📌 Expert reviewers
📌 20,000+ #journals evaluated
#Research
Read all about last week's announcement: buff.ly/QyX8Ykk

Cabells Expands Predatory Reports Database to 20,000 Journals Cabells' Predatory Reports database now includes over 20,000 journals, empowering academics to navigate and verify reliable publishing options.

Cabells' Predatory Reports uses transparent, documented criteria to evaluate journals, which now has 20K+ titles.

Helping researchers publish with confidence. #Publishing #Research #PredatoryJournals
blog.cabells.com/2026/02/03/c...

20,000 Reasons to Love Predatory Reports In August 2021, the number of journals included in the Cabells Predatory Reports database reached 15,000, and we declared at the time that it represented a ‘mountain to climb’ for many researchers, as other integrity issues were proliferating. Sadly, this mountain has only grown, with the number of predatory journals listed in Predatory Reports now passing 20,000 (20,274 to be precise).

Predatory Reports now includes information on more than 20,000 predatory journals - a sobering milestone in research integrity.

Read a bit about how we got here in our latest blog.

#AcademicPublishing #PredatoryJournals #ScholComm

🎉Cabells Predatory Reports just hit 20,000+ journals reviewed and listed!
We are helping researchers and institutions spot predatory journals with clear criteria and expert vetting. Thanks for being part of the mission for trustworthy research!

blog.cabells.com/2026/02/03/c... #ResearchIntegrity

We've got BIG news to share with you, so stay tuned tomorrow (2/3)!

#Publishing #Research #ScholComm

Who Can You Trust? Think back, if you can, 25 years ago to January 2001, and what do you remember? To jog your memory, that month saw the inauguration of George W. Bush as U.S. President, the launch of iTunes from Apple, and the appointment of the England football team’s first foreign manager, Sven-Göran Eriksson.   While you sit there thinking how old you feel, this will make you feel even worse: it was also…

25 years ago, Wikipedia was a punchline. Today, it’s one of the most trusted sources online. What changed?

In a world awash with misinformation, trust isn't just earned, it's built. Our latest blog explores what Wikipedia’s evolution can teach the rest of us.
#ScholComm #Research

Ghosts in the Machine Breaching research integrity is often regarded as, at worst, a white-collar crime reserved for nerdy types who couldn’t quite cut it intellectually; at best, it’s not even regarded at all – it is simply invisible to most people as they go about their lives. However, this may be about to change with the release of a new documentary that may bring the problem home to many people.  

A powerful new doc, The Shadow Scholars, puts a spotlight on the ghostwriting industry in Kenya and the global systems that created it. From essay mills to generative AI, it’s time to ask: who benefits from academic dishonesty, and who pays the price? Read Simon Linacre's latest blog to learn more.

The Changing Face of Research Impact Are mainstream journals publishing research with a greater focus on impact? Based on recently published research on top-ranked business journals, the answer is a cautious 'yes.' Below is a summary of an article co-authored by, among others, Cabells’ Simon Linacre and the new Head of PRME, Dr. David Steingard. From "Revolutionizing societal impact in business school research: can the FT50 lead the change?", published in Emerald Publishing’s…

Are top journals publishing research with a focus on societal impact?

A new paper co-authored by Cabells’ own Simon Linacre explores whether mainstream journals can evolve from gatekeepers of prestige to catalysts for global change.

The authors found some promising (if uneven) shifts.

Rising Publication Costs Strain Researchers Open access publishing has led to researchers paying thousands of dollars to publish their work, limiting funds for research and leaving scientists with hard choices.

Rising Publication Costs Strain Researchers www.the-scientist.com/rising-publi... "Open access publishing has led to researchers paying thousands of dollars to publish their work, limiting funds for research and leaving scientists with hard choices." #Publishing #OpenAccess #Research

AI in Scholarly Publishing — SSP Pulse Check Report - The Scholarly Kitchen The first of SSP’s new polling initiative, Pulse Check, explores AI in scholarly publishing and set out to understand how our communities are navigating this monumental shift.

AI in Scholarly Publishing: SSP Pulse Check Report scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2026/01/09/a... via @scholarlykitchen.bsky.social "This report seeks to understand how #publishers and scholarly communications professionals are currently using #AI..." #ScholComm

Land of Make Believe A Happy New Year to everyone, and if you can’t quite believe it is January already, then recent news on the impact of AI on scholarly communications is not going to help with that feeling of things not being quite real. Towards the end of 2025, reports started to emerge of 'imaginary journals.' We have become used to hearing that a major problem with generative AI is that it can hallucinate things and present them as factual, but going to the extent of creating fantasy journals and citations surprised many.

Fake journals. Invented authors. AI-generated citations that lead nowhere. As generative AI blurs the line between real research and pure fiction, trusted, verified sources matter more than ever.
Our latest blog explores the growth of “imaginary journals” and what it means for research integrity.

Research integrity solutions need to scale both ways - Research Information Considering the needs of smaller publishers will yield more efficacious solutions and implementation at every scale, writes Danielle Padula

#Research integrity solutions need to scale both ways www.researchinformation.info/analysis-opi... via @researchinfo.bsky.social "Considering the needs of smaller #publishers will yield more efficacious solutions and implementation at every scale, writes Danielle Padula."

Scientific publisher agreements expand open-access research | Penn State University The University Libraries will enter into new open-access publishing agreements with two major scientific publishers starting in 2026 to make Penn State peer-reviewed research published through…

REMOVING BARRIERS: Scientific publisher agreements expand open-access #research www.psu.edu/news/univers... via @psupress.bsky.social #OpenAccess #PublishingNews

Cabells’ Year in Books – 2025 Each December, as schedules slow and the days grow shorter, our team at Cabells turns to our favorite end-of-year tradition: reflecting on the books that moved us, challenged us, or simply gave us an excuse to unplug for a while. Our list below, diverse in genre, style, and voice, captures not just what we read in 2025, but how we experienced the world through fiction, memoir, and sharp-eyed nonfiction.

Check out our team's favorite reads of 2025 on our blog. From surreal sci-fi to searing nonfiction, these are the books that made us think, feel, and stay up too late in 2025. Check out the full list and maybe find your next favorite!

Book Review: Introduction to Research Ethics and Academic Integrity, by Amani Khalil Abu-Shaheen, Muaawia Ahmed Hamza, and Sumayyia Marar (eds.) If there is a common thread to any article or commentary on the state of research integrity and publishing ethics among the global scholarly community, it is usually that there is a need for more education. If only PhD students had better teaching on research integrity issues, and early career scholars more formal instruction on publishing norms, then we would not have the slew of integrity issues we seem to be facing.

New on our blog: Simon Linacre reviews the new book Introduction to Research Ethics and Academic Integrity and finds some helpful frameworks & case studies, but also a few misses on AI and #PredatoryJournals.

#AcademicIntegrity #ScholComm

Report: Impact of Chinese Research “On Par” With U.S. China’s rise in research output and influence has coincided with the U.S. government’s increased focus on research security over the past several years, according to a new report.

Report: Impact of Chinese Research ‘On Par’ With U.S. via @insidehighered "China’s rise in #research output and influence has coincided with the U.S. government’s increased focus on research security over the past several years..." #HigherEd www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

Anatomy of a Predatory Journal Email (Part 1) I once attended a financial crime research conference and, at the gala dinner, found myself sitting next to the lead investigator in cybercrime from Nigeria. It was fascinating to hear some of the stories he had to share, including instances of tracking down the people who sent those seemingly now extinct emails purporting to be from some African prince who wanted to put $15 million in your account temporarily while they sorted some issues out.

Just like the infamous “Nigerian prince” scam, #PredatoryJournal solicitation emails count on quantity, because it only takes a few unsuspecting researchers to fall for the trap.

Part 1 of our new blog series breaks down a recent solicitation email and highlights the red flags. #ScholComm

Major social science repository adding further restrictions due to increase in 'AI-generated slop'

Evaluating the Impact of UN Sustainable Development Goals Explore the impact of UN SDGs on global policy a decade after adoption, highlighting successes and challenges in research and implementation.

A great report from @springernature.com and @overton.io shows published research has not move the #SDGs needle. Here @slinacre.bsky.social asks for a better environment for research to have the impact it deserves.

#scholcomm #researchimpact #sustainability

blog.cabells.com/2025/11/26/h...

Evaluating the Impact of UN Sustainable Development Goals Explore the impact of UN SDGs on global policy a decade after adoption, highlighting successes and challenges in research and implementation.

A great report from @springernature.com and @overton.io shows published research has not move the #SDGs needle. Here @slinacre.bsky.social asks for a better environment for research to have the impact it deserves.

#scholcomm #researchimpact #sustainability

blog.cabells.com/2025/11/26/h...