Testing the Robustness of COPE’s Characterization of Predatory Publishing on a COPE Member Publisher (Academic and Business Research Institute)

Abstract

The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) is a leading ethics-promoting organization associated with academic publishing. COPE continuously fortifies its ethics guidelines, also serving as a warning portal of “predatory” publishing behavior. A 2019 COPE discussion document on “predatory publishing” lists 16 warning signs of predatory publishers/journals. Grounded in legitimacy theory, this study examines, by adopting COPE’s 16 warning signs of “predatory publishing” as criteria, the case of a current COPE member publisher, Academic and Business Research Institute (AABRI). Our assessment reveals that, according to COPE’s own stated criteria, AABRI would be considered as “predatory.” The objective of this case study was to appreciate whether COPE’s 16 warning signs may be insufficiently sensitive to detect a predatory journal or publisher, or whether those criteria require an adjustment if the journal/publisher is academically legitimate but is found to be otherwise. If such criteria were to be used widely by academics (and others) to characterize journals or publishers, but result in a surprising or undesired negative classification (“predatory”), then this may have widespread ramifications not only for global academia but also for scholarship and society at large. An incorrect classification could also negatively impact the COPE “brand” of ethical and scholarly legitimacy.