Easy ticket to an impact factor publication
Faisalabad, Pakistan-based Medwell Journals was on my very first list of questionable publishers in 2010, and it continues there today. One of Medwell’s journals is the Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, and this journal actually has an impact factor.
This journal is clear evidence that the impact factor is not a measure of quality, for this is a bottom-tier journal. The Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances has an impact factor of 0.390. On the other hand, the journal has a very large editorial board, whose 70 members are listed without their affiliations, if any. Moreover, the publisher tries to hide the fact that it’s based in Pakistan, and it does not clearly state what its article processing charges are.
It’s evidently very easy to get published in the Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances. In fact, it’s so easy that the journal has 24 large issues per year to accommodate all the submissions it receives and accepts for publication. It’s clear the publisher is making a lot of money off this single journal. However, the papers appear to be generally of very low quality, and some are off-topic.
An article about concrete in a veterinary journal
One example is the above article, “Effect of Different Cure Conditions on Compressive Strength of Concrete Having Different Properties.” The paper is about curing concrete and has nothing to do with “animal and veterinary advances.” Also, the publisher is not investing in copyediting, as a quick analysis of the articles reveals.
Many countries, universities, and departments require that their faculty publish in impact factor journals for promotion, tenure, and annual evaluations. Somehow, the Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances has managed to get a legitimate impact factor, so it’s a gold mine for the publisher, and dream-come-true for authors needing a quick and easy publication in a journal with a legitimate impact factor.
Also, if you need academic credit that involves serving on the editorial board of an impact factor journal, this is a good place to go, and I suspect it involves very little if any work.
So, the impact factor is not a measure of quality, as this journal proves. I am keeping Medwell Journals on my list of questionable publishers and recommend that researchers not submit papers to any of their journals, impact factor or not.
Hat tip: Dr. Germán D. Mendoza Martínez
Avoid this publisher.
