§ ETL Research Integrity

WSU Predatory Journal Scan

Wright State University · Publications Jul 2021–Jun 2026 · OpenAlex + Stop Predatory Journals

Step 1

Install

One dependency. Run this once.

pip install requests

Step 2

Run

From the ETL repo scripts/ folder:

python wsu_predatory_scan.py

First run takes 3–5 min (OpenAlex pagination). Subsequent runs use the cached predatory list.

Output Files

Two files written to your working directory on each run:

wsu_predatory_results.csvEvery publication — year, authors, department, college, journal, publisher, predatory flag, match reason, link.

wsu_predatory_report.htmlVisual report — open in browser. Summary stats, top flagged journals, top flagged authors, full sortable tables.

Optional Flags

# Narrow the date range
python wsu_predatory_scan.py --from-year 2022

# Write output files to a specific folder
python wsu_predatory_scan.py --out-dir C:\Reports

# Re-download predatory lists (skip cache)
python wsu_predatory_scan.py --no-cache

How Flagging Works

Each publication's journal is cross-checked against the Stop Predatory Journals dataset (community Beall's-successor) in three ways, in order:

ISSN matchMost reliable. Journal ISSN matches a known predatory ISSN exactly.

Journal nameNormalized title matches the predatory journal list.

PublisherPublisher substring matches a known predatory publisher.

A YES flag means the journal matched a community-maintained list — not a formal institutional determination. Verify flagged entries manually before using for personnel or accreditation decisions. False positives occur. Absence of a flag does not certify legitimacy.

Script Location

The script lives in the ETL repo at:

etl-lab-push/scripts/wsu_predatory_scan.py

View on GitHub ↗ Download Script ↓