this post was submitted on 20 May 2025
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I'm been trying to expanding to my scientific literacy and that has involved looking at articles in scientific journals; i.e. the peer-reviewed literature. However, not all journals are trust-worthy. I would like to believe that academic search engines like Google Scholar would filter out "junk science" articles that I can't rely on that always happening. So how do I spot "predatory" or "pseudo-journals"?

Sometimes, it's quite obvious: "Answers Research Journal" makes it clear that they exist for creationist confirmation bias. This, however, isn't always the case.

I also can't always rely on a publication's reputation. In that oh-so famous example, Andrew Wakefield exploited The Lancet's venerable reputation to publish a fraudulent study with consequences that still reverberate to this day.

Thanks in advance.

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[–] lemming 1 points 1 week ago

Hasn't Beal's list been taken down quite a while ago? I remember making a copy of it before they removed it. It was a great source, but sometimes it needed some context. I think all of Frontiers in ended up on the list for reasons, but their review process was mostly alright, for example. It was this kind of lack of clearly definedrules and explanations that let them to taking the list down. Is it back up?