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I accidentally submitted to a predatory journal from the Pulsus Group, which is on Beall's List. I did not sign anything yet; no copyright transferred. I then tried to withdraw when I found out about their predatory nature. They want to charge me 525 € as a last offer to either publish or withdraw by Monday so as not to retract the paper publicly. They only have a PDF version of it. How bad would the damage of public retraction from a predatory journal be, and can I resubmit it elsewhere afterwards?

If I pay, they could still continue to extort me… they are bombarding me with emails to pay.

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Geraldine Gera404 Reichard
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    Since copyright has not been transferred, you can submit it elsewhere. Does this answer your question? https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17374/how-can-i-withdraw-a-publication-from-a-predatory-fake-journal-and-resubmit-to – Allure Feb 29 '24 at 08:18
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    Do you have some legal protection insurance to discuss this with a lawyer? After all you signed no contract - it would be more about character defamation in this case. – Dr.M Feb 29 '24 at 09:27
  • Yes I know. But maybe they would defame me out of anger if I don’t pay… I am already talking to lawyers, but no legal insurance unfortunately and would be more expensive than paying the scammers. The question would be how bad retraction from a predatory journal would influence the chance to publish the paper elsewhere or destroy reputation. Maybe these are just bluffs of course… and they won’t publish or retract. – Geraldine Gera404 Reichard Feb 29 '24 at 09:55
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    Does this answer your question? can I submit in a new journal after submission in a predatory journal who force to pay in order to withdraw? – Sursula Feb 29 '24 at 10:09
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    see also: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/123408/do-i-have-an-obligation-to-pay-publication-fee-to-predatory-journal – Sursula Feb 29 '24 at 10:09
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    I don't understand the scenario. The predatory publisher hasn't published your paper, and does not even have the rights to do so. How can a paper that was never published in the first place be retracted? – Nuclear Hoagie Feb 29 '24 at 14:36
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    ... and if indeed you have not signed anything yet, there is little basis for the journal to claim that you have made any kind of agreement with them that could subject you to liability if you broke it. But do be careful about that: it is possible that you did make an agreement, and even did an equivalent of signing it, by the action of clicking the journal's "Submit my article" button. – John Bollinger Feb 29 '24 at 20:30
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    The worry "maybe they would defame me out of anger if I don’t pay" would be enough for me to run the other way. Thugs. "Publishing" with them is a public announcement that your material does not otherwise meet high standards. Why advertise that? – Yosef Baskin Feb 29 '24 at 23:18
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    Beall's List is in past tense on Wikipidia. Is that true, and if so, how does it affect this question? Presumably, the information is 7 years out of date. – Peter Mortensen Mar 01 '24 at 00:54
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    "If I pay, they could still continue to bribe me…" - did you mean extort you, or something like that? If they are bribing you, that would mean they give you money so that you will do something in return. – Karl Knechtel Mar 01 '24 at 14:47
  • Yes I mean extort. And yes it could be possible, that I gave them copyright accidentally. They wanted me to sign a formal copyright declaration, which I refused, but they state in their policy that by submitting the copyright is theirs, which I did not read and yes I clicked on it in the false and dumb believe the journal was not predatory. But they indeed threat to publish and retract, which is confusing. I will see, if they do that, but I refuse to pay scammers. – Geraldine Gera404 Reichard Mar 01 '24 at 14:55
  • @GeraldineGera404Reichard What jurisdiction is the company or individual running the journal in? Ditto yourself? – Mark Morgan Lloyd Mar 02 '24 at 07:30
  • @GeraldineGera404Reichard if they do publish and retract, bear in mind that nobody will care. Anybody that knows that it was a predatory journal ought to be able to work out that it was not retracted on quality ("cui bono") - or it may be that they are taking advantage of the predatory nature and won't care. For those that don't know it is a predatory journal, it may cause them to question the quality of the journal, which is no bad thing. I have a paper with a publisher on Beale's list (*but from a decade before there was a list), it is no big deal, especially if you are early career. – Dikran Marsupial Mar 02 '24 at 16:10
  • BTW do you have any evidence that they failed to perform their part of the agreement for your specific paper (e.g. they promised peer review but didn't actually send it for review)? For the copyright issue, you may want to ask on the Law SE - I suspect a substantial re-wording of the paper would circumvent the copyright, which is on the text/diagrams not the ideas, however I am not an expert on that so don't rely on my understanding! – Dikran Marsupial Mar 02 '24 at 16:14
  • I looked up the publisher in question, and the main evidence for it being predatory seems to be that it was bought up by OMICS, and that seems to have caused a lack of confidence in it's editors and associated medical institutions. I don't think that is strong evidence that it actually is a predatory journal, it seems that it was on Beale's list as being potentially predatory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulsus_Group . I suspect they were once solid journals (if perhaps not that prestigious). – Dikran Marsupial Mar 02 '24 at 16:41
  • So they are going to publish without copyrights when you didn't give permission to publish and then withdraw it to make you look bad? That's the most bizarre extortion scheme I have ever heard. – Tom Mar 02 '24 at 22:41

3 Answers3

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The truth is, no one can really predict what the journal will do. However, there are several things to keep in mind:

  1. predatory journals are in the business of making money with the least effort for themselves
  2. retractions potentially harm the journal in addition to the author
  3. it makes no sense for a journal to retract a paper unless they have already published it.
  4. threats and bluster cost the journal nothing

You don't say whether they have in fact already published your paper but it would seem truly strange that they would go to the expense of publishing your paper if they have not already done so, only with the intention of retracting it ... and still not getting any money from you.

With that in mind, in your shoes I would simply stop responding to any correspondence from them, submit your paper elsewhere.

One last thing ... I don't think that places like Retraction Watch deign to cover junk journals!

CrimsonDark
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    Thanks. That seems like the right thing to do. For now they have not even “peer-reviewed” it nor published, but threat me to do this on Monday, if I won’t pay. I guess there would have not really peer-review it in any case, but it is officially in review stage. They wanted me to sign the copyright agreement to proceed with the peer review, which I refused to do. – Geraldine Gera404 Reichard Feb 29 '24 at 10:01
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    To me, that seems like the best call. Put differently, if I were in your shoes, I *would* do exactly as I suggested. The future is unpredictable, but surrendering to blackmail never does one any good. And I strongly suspect that the journal will move on to an easier victim if they can't quickly get money from you! And as I implied, I'd just ignore their future emails, not start arguing with them or abusing them. – CrimsonDark Feb 29 '24 at 10:10
  • Yes seems like the best option . Thanks. – Geraldine Gera404 Reichard Feb 29 '24 at 10:13
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    Right now they are bombarding me with emails to pay, so I guess that’s all that they will do. Hoping for the best. But you cannot really argue with scammers that’s true. – Geraldine Gera404 Reichard Feb 29 '24 at 10:24
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    +1. This journal almost certainly sends out threatening emails like that to anyone who sends them a manuscript, since threats do not cost them anything. At some point, if they tailor their threats to Germans, they will start telling you that they will send an Inkassobüro after you. This is all bluster. They are spamming people and hoping that one in twenty victims will pay them. Cut off contact with them, and submit elsewhere. – Stephan Kolassa Feb 29 '24 at 11:13
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    And should they indeed send someone to collect the money, I am sure there is the analog of "cease and desist" in Germany. As long as you did not sign a copyright agreement, I think you are in a pretty good state. 'Sittenwidrig' may also be a term of interest in a potential legal dispute of the nature of their business, but I do not think it will escalate to legal. These guys know that Germans are afraid of legal, and so that's the game they play. – Captain Emacs Feb 29 '24 at 11:56
  • @CaptainEmacs sittenwidrig isn't quite specific to this case. Whether it is or not, maybe, but that's details really. Sure, there is a cease and desist. They won't send an Inkassobüro, because they have to pay it upfront and it will leave you in peace if you refuse to pay. An Inkassobüro is meant to get money that someone actually owes. They are good at getting some money out of you instead of none, if you have no money. – DonQuiKong Feb 29 '24 at 19:49
  • @DonQuiKong I thought that it might be a potential defense appropriately interpreted in the context of the situation, but I am not a lawyer. In any case, I agree, unlikely that they can actually do anything. – Captain Emacs Feb 29 '24 at 21:05
  • I don’t think that they can send anyone after me, since they have no right to do so, not yet threatened with legal steps and have nothing except a Pdf of the paper. They now try desperately to lowered the price of withdrawal or publishing to 400$ in their latest spam mails to get at least some money out of me. If they really would publish and retract the paper, they maybe say, that they will put it offline again, if I’ll pay. Or its just a bluff. But who cares about retraction from those kind of journals? – Geraldine Gera404 Reichard Mar 01 '24 at 15:06
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Get a lawyer involved. I would not simply ghost them and hope they won't do anything, and you definitely shouldn't keep arguing with them. If you are a student or academic at a university or a researcher at a research institute or company, your organisation will have lawyers who are knowledgeable about contracts and copyright law. It is likely that a sternly worded letter from your lawyer will see the end of the matter.

Significance
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    Yes, if you are at a US university this is something the university legal office would probably handle for you. – Dawn Mar 01 '24 at 02:59
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    (+1) for advice to get a lawyer involved. However, whether a lawyer letter will dispose of the matter might depend on the jurisdiction which the predatory journal operates in. If it is a "hostile" country then the courts there might not be terribly amenable to actions against the publisher, so the letter will carry little threatening weight. – Ben Mar 01 '24 at 06:36
  • I am German not US. I don’t think lawyers can do much, since these people are criminals and don’t care about laws. Also the information about the journal on the website seems like they use fake names and operate from some third world country. The lawyers demanded high prices. One lawyer even said 300€ an hour and I should better pay the scammers. Also Pulsus had several lawsuits to deal with and still seem to operate. They could always still retract the paper publicly, if that would have any impact, if a pdf version and a journal website are enough to do so. – Geraldine Gera404 Reichard Mar 01 '24 at 15:12
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    As OP says, the typical spam journal operates from countries outside the reach of western law. Getting a lawyer seems like expenses that will ultimately not be helpful. OTOH this also seriously limits what they can realistically do to you - put a mean note on their website? Who cares, nobody takes them seriously anyway (that's why it's a spam publisher). – xLeitix Mar 01 '24 at 15:53
  • Geraldine, you almost certainly have access to a lawyer at no cost through your institution, assuming that you are a student or employed as a researcher. Ask your supervisor or check your intranet pages to find out their contact details. It is worth asking someone familiar with the relevant laws for advice. – Significance Mar 01 '24 at 19:49
  • Just to add: universities have lawyers everywhere. This advice is not specific to the US. – Significance Mar 01 '24 at 19:55
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    Ok I will try to. Cannot be harmful… – Geraldine Gera404 Reichard Mar 01 '24 at 20:22
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    @Significance another question is whether those university lawyers will be willing to help you for free. It is not at all obvious. – wimi Mar 02 '24 at 12:12
  • @wimi if the paper is going to be published with the university’s affiliation, they have an interest in looking after the university’s reputation. It’s their job. – Significance Mar 03 '24 at 09:16
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Just playing devil's advocate, but lets say you submitted a paper to a reputable journal and it had been accepted and published online, and the author refused to pay the agreed publication fee†. It would not be unreasonable for them to "threaten" to withdraw the paper and leave a note to explain why. What else should they do, given that they had published the work for you, as agreed?

Predatory publishers exists because they meet a need. Some academics need to get papers in print, whether competently peer reviewed or not, perhaps for career progression reasons. How is the publisher to know whether or not you agreed for them to publish your paper knowing what the journals standards are like.

At the end of the day, there is an element of "caveat emptor" (buyer beware). You seem to agree that you made a mistake in sending the paper to a predatory journal, so you should expect there to be some consequences to your mistake. I would send them a letter requesting them to withdraw your paper (or agreeing to the withdrawal). Call their bluff. If someone asked me why the paper was withdrawn, I would just say "yes, I discovered it was a predatory journal after I had submitted the paper". If they give a false reason for the withdrawal, then you should have the reviewer comments and email from the editor showing that it was not because of a problem with the content.

† It amazes me that commercial academic publishers still exist, give that reputable on-line journals, such as jmlr.org have demonstrated it is feasible to have an open access journal that is free to both reader and author, as most of the work is done pro-bono by academic anyway. It would be a much better use of taxpayers money for the funding bodies to subsidise similar academic-run on-line journals (the quality of the journal will depend on the quality of the editorial board).

Dikran Marsupial
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    It is not reasonable for a reputable journal to retract an article for unpaid fees. Nothing in the COPE retraction guidelines says you should, and I haven't seen it done. The publisher can go as far as to sue you for unpaid bills, but there is nothing wrong with the paper itself, and thus holding it hostage is improper. – user71659 Feb 29 '24 at 17:39
  • @user71659 is there anything in the COPE guidelines that say that they shouldn't? I think there is a terminological issue here, where "retraction" has the implication that there was something wrong with the paper. Simply deleting the paper from the online journal leaving an explanation of why it was done would not be a retraction in that sense, so I don't see a problem with it - it wouldn't be a criticism of the content of the paper. – Dikran Marsupial Feb 29 '24 at 17:49
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    Reputable journals don't publish your paper before you've paid the fee, if there is one. – Karl Mar 01 '24 at 22:18
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