PREDATORY JOURNALS IN EDUCATION: HOW TO RECOGNIZE FAKE JOURNALS?

This article aimed to contribute with essential elements, as well as practical examples, so that academic in the area of Education can to be wary of and uncover these false publications and avoid the negative consequences of publicizing your studies in fraudulent vehicles. Thus, the main characteristics of predatory journals are discussed, such as the absence of editors, nonexistent or fraudulent indexing, false impact factors, scarcity or absence of information about physical address, as well as the exiguity of how the editorial process of the predatory journal occurs. Thus, several real examples are presented of how this type of fraud is operationalized to deceive potential authors. It is important to note that there are about 485 predatory journals listed in QUALIS, and some of them have received high grades, such as A1 and A2 in certain areas of knowledge. It is essential that research and education institutions reflect on the phenomenon and help guide their academics so that resources are not wasted on this type of publication, nor researchers and faculty members gain scores with illegitimate predatory publications.