Regional profile of questionable publishing

Countries and authors in the academic periphery have occasionally been criticized for contributing to the expansion of questionable publishing, because they share a major fraction of papers in questionable journals. On the other side, both quantitative evaluation systems and social stratification in academic publishing drive authors toward questionable journals rather than legitimate publications. Questionable journals are sometimes perceived as serving local academia, a function considered essential for regional scientific development in certain countries. However, this requires rigorous examination. In this study, we performed an in-depth analysis of the distribution of questionable publications and journals along with their interplay with countries, quantifying the influence of questionable publications on academic inequality. We found that low-impact journals play a vital role in the regional academic environment, whereas questionable journals with equivalent impacts publish papers globally, both geographically and academically. The business model of questionable journals differs from that of regional journals, and may thus be detrimental to the broader academic community. • We show the underestimated questionable publishing practices in developed countries, despite their large publication volumes. • We construct collaboration networks to gauge the share of regional or international journals occupied by publications. • We find clusters from primary country's publications, revealing high-GDP countries' preference for international journals.