Predatory publishing - what medical communicators need to know: An update 7 years on

Predatory journals publish manuscripts for a fee while bypassing peer review and disregarding publication ethics. The number of predatory journals has grown from some 8000 (2014) to over 20,000 (2026). The targeting of potential authors is intentional: predatory publishers focus disproportionately on early-career researchers and those in low- and middle-income countries, though high submission volumes from wealthy institutions sustain their market. Awareness remains poor as most researchers cannot reliably identify a journal as predatory. However, although at a low level, academic interest in predatory publishing has nearly doubled between 2021 and 2025. As articles in predatory journals increasingly enter systematic reviews and regulatory dossiers, medical communicators must critically appraise and verify not only the article they use, but also the journal that published it.