PedCheck: A Dashboard for Analyzing Social Media Posts about Predatory Journals

Predatory journals are continuing to expand across disciplines and target researchers via different media such as websites and spam emails to potential authors. While multiple studies have described characteristics of predatory journals, less research has been on done on authors' perceptions of and experiences with predatory journals. In this paper, by using a data science approach, we developed a tool that analyzes the content of social media and summarizes what users (authors) have shared about predatory journals. This tool is useful in understanding the current concerns of researchers about predatory journals and examining current activities of these journals.