In 2019, an article published in *Nature* entitled "Predatory Journals: No Definition, No Defence" (Grudniewicz, Agnes, et al., 2019, pp. 210-212) highlighted the growing problem of predatory journals in academia. While this issue has received attention in the hard sciences, it has been largely overlooked in the social sciences, including political science. It is crucial to bring this discussion to political science because predatory journals - those that charge authors publication fees while guaranteeing publication without proper peer review or quality control - pose a serious threat to research ethics.
These predatory practices compromise scientific integrity, reduce the quality of research, and damage the credibility of results. Although many attempts have been made to define and recognize such journals, there is still no universally accepted definition of predatory publishing. Ethical concerns related to predatory journals include their detrimental effects on the editorial process, the evaluation of researchers, the accreditation of universities and research centers, grant funding decisions, the quality of scientific literature, the risk of plagiarism, scientific rigor, the development of teaching materials, and the legitimacy of research results.
The aim of this roundtable is to promote an open dialogue on these issues in political science, focusing on:
1. The definition of predatory publishing;
2. Identifying predatory journals;
3. Examine the impact of predatory publishing on research ethics;
4. To explore the relationship between Open Access and predatory publishing.
