LAUSR

We thank the author of the recent letter to the Editor [1] for commenting on our article on the listing of scientific journals [2]. We would like to reiterate and discuss further a few important points that we detailed in the paper. The issue of predatory publishing is a scourge affecting scientific publishing worldwide and is especially a challenge for young, inexperienced authors. As exemplified in another recent article [3], predatory activities, which aim to falsely lure scientists into utilizing them to display their work, are not limited to predatory journals. Indeed, there are predatory book publishers and conferences as well as external editing and brokering agencies, which may not only edit manuscripts but also liaison with predatory journals or journal lists, enabling their content to find a place in such sources, often without declaring the role of such agencies. As the letter [1] has rightly mentioned, nothing is really foolproof when it comes to susceptibility towards predatory activities. This was highlighted in the previously mentioned article on the scope of predatory publishing [3], wherein certain journals managed to acquire an impact factor before eventually being detected to have engaged in malpractice, thereafter being debarred from the Journal Citation Reports. This brings to attention another important point raised in our article [2], i.e., the longevity of existence of a journal as an acceptable means of publishing in the scientific community is potentially a surrogate for good publishing practices and genuine scientific merit. The recent letter [1] alluded to journal selectors, which may help young authors choose the appropriate journal for their work. However, we would like to caution young authors not to take any information derived from free or paid journal selectors at face value and should only use them as a screening tool, ultimately applying their own intellect and experience in deciding whether a journal is worthwhile publishing in or not. Finally, we would like to re-emphasize our aforementioned point about the advantages of open access (OA) Rheumatology INTERNATIONAL