A Response to a Non-Tested Hypothesis: Unawareness of Researchers is the Main Reason for Being Duped by Predatory Journals

Nowadays, the academic world is faced with various challenges involving fraudulent activities related to publishing. The most important of these concerns the fast growth in predatory journals, a phenomenon that has more victims than others. In response, we have offered papers and proceedings that discuss the issue of predatory journals in trying to increase the awareness of researchers. The unproven hypothesis is that by increasing awareness among junior researchers the numbers of victims will decrease. This hypothesis, however, has never been tested. In this short piece, we try to prove or reject this conjecture.