HEC fails to stop the unethical practices

Online predatory and clone research journals are increasingly being used by university teachers, but the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has so far failed to put a stop to this unethical practice.

these journals allow for the online publication of subpar research papers and make it easy for some Pakistani university professors to commit academic fraud after making a few hundred dollars in online payments.

Teachers receive promotions and other benefits as a result of their subpar research articles being published in these journals, but the HEC and other relevant educational institutions and authorities have yet to take action against such internet journals.

According to the report, taking action is not difficult because the relevant authorities can use the findings of global research watchdogs that have already identified many fake, predatory, and clone journals and research papers authored by Pakistani academics.

Beall's List, a website that holds a list of potential predatory journals, Retraction Watch Database, another website that keeps a record of retracted research papers (which are papers removed by a journal after publication due to the later discovery of some malpractice or other reason), and impact-finding indexing agencies like Scopus and Web of Science are some examples.

Due to the apparent apathy of the HEC and other authorities towards predatory and clone journals, many honest academics are being deceived as they cite articles published in clone journals, which are sub-standard and using the name of reputed ones for deception, the publication reported, explaining that a significant number of faculty members at prestigious educational institutes in Pakistan too have published their papers in clone journals after being misled by the publication.

Some faculty members, on the other hand, appear to have purposefully committed academic fraud in reputable journals, but when their malpractice was discovered, their papers were retracted.