Scientific visibility and predatory journals in Hungarian higher education

Abstract

With the increasing importance of scientific indicators, the principle of "publish or perish", according to which those who do not publish in sufficient quantity and quality fail, has gained ground. The emergence of this principle is one of the root causes for the rise of predatory journals. These pseudo-scientific publications are increasingly present in the market of scientific publications, jeopardizing the credibility of scientific communication. In this study, the authors examine the relationship of researchers working in Hungarian higher education to open access and predatory journals. They present what Hungarian researchers are doing to increase their scientific visibility and what platforms they prefer to use to achieve their goals. Within this topic, the differences and similarities between various disciplines are described in terms of publishing habits. The authors also examine how predatory publications and those publishing in them are perceived.