Predatory journals and publishers: Characteristics and impact of academic spam to researchers in educational sciences

This study focuses on the phenomenon of presumed predatory scientific publications in field Educational Sciences, and utilization email by editors to request manuscripts. It examined, using content analysis methods, 210 emails received three professors Education, at a Spanish university with different research profiles over period 3 months. Through unsolicited total 139 journals 37 publishers were identified examined using: (a) two main journal inventories (Beall's list Cabells' Predatory Reports), (b) six major bibliographic databases. The their websites also analyzed, as well basic aspects emails' content. majority from or half article requests did not match recipient. In addition, it is relevant note that more than domains analysed have untrustworthy security levels. data provided information predation Education and, most importantly, evidence for developing training preventive strategies tackle it.