Center for Applied Language Studies (CALS), University of Jyvaskyla, Jyvaskyla, Finland.
School of Education, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
Account Res. 2024 Dec;31(2):80-99. doi: 10.1080/08989621.2022.2106424. Epub 2022 Aug 1.
Predatory publishing has recently emerged as a menace in academia. University professors and researchers often exploit this practice for their economic gains and institutional prestige. The present study investigates such existing predatory publishing practices in Pakistani public sector universities drawing on the notion of symbolic violence. For this purpose, we analyzed 495 articles published by 50 university professors in the social sciences and humanities over the period 2017-2021. We also conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 postgraduate students to gather their perspectives on publishing practices. The study shows that 69% of the sample papers were published in predatory journals, as identified in Pakistan's Higher Education Commission's (HEC) online journal recognition system (HJRS). Postgraduate students' insights inform the study that the students misrecognize these malpractices in academia as a problem what is referred to as "symbolic violence." Consequently, they engage in the process to increase their publications. Such publications enable both the university professors and the students to achieve the desired benefit, such as promotions, tenure, and academic degrees. We recommend that this practice must be altered at the policy level since it not only violates the HEC's standards for quality research but also damages the researchers' credibility and country's scientific reputation.
掠夺性出版最近在学术界崭露头角，成为一种威胁。大学教授和研究人员经常为了经济利益和机构声誉而利用这种做法。本研究利用象征性暴力的概念，调查了巴基斯坦公立大学中现有的这种掠夺性出版行为。为此，我们分析了 2017 年至 2021 年间 50 位大学教授在社会科学和人文学科发表的 495 篇文章。我们还对 20 名研究生进行了半结构化访谈，以收集他们对出版实践的看法。研究表明，69%的样本论文发表在掠夺性期刊上，这些期刊是根据巴基斯坦高等教育委员会（HEC）在线期刊认可系统（HJRS）确定的。研究生的观点为研究提供了信息，他们将学术界的这些不当行为误认为是一种“象征性暴力”问题。因此，他们参与到发表论文的过程中，以增加自己的论文发表量。这些出版物使大学教授和学生都能够获得预期的利益，如晋升、终身职位和学位。我们建议必须在政策层面上改变这种做法，因为它不仅违反了 HEC 的高质量研究标准，还损害了研究人员的信誉和国家的科学声誉。
