Abstract:
The publish or perish concept requires academics to ensure
that they take part in research and publish the research results
in academic journals. The emergency of predatory publishers
has led to negativity in the scholarly publishing process. Some
researchers are unaware that some publishers are unethical.
A study was conducted to determine the extent of predatory
publishing in Zimbabwe among academics. A survey was car ried out using a multi-method approach at a public university
in Zimbabwe. Articles published between 2012 and 2022 were
retrieved using the Harzing publish or perish software. In total,
977 articles were retrieved, and after data cleaning using Open
Refine, 357 records were analyzed using the journal evaluation
rubric and scoring sheet to note the extent of predatory pub lishing among the various schools. The articles were then
classified into 3 sections i.e., predatory, not predatory, and
borderline. The findings revealed that predatory publishing is
prevalent in the social sciences. The authors recommend the
importance of training to create awareness about the dangers
of predatory publishing and how to avoid them to improve the
scholarly output of the institution, which is key to university
ranking.
