Obadele Bakari Kambon

University of Ghana | Legon · Institute of African Studies

Some of you reached out to me with regard to why I retracted two articles that appeared briefly here at researchgate.net. It became apparent that based on the evidence I had collected, Mgbakọigba: Journal of African Studies was engaging in predatory practices, fleecing desperate researchers looking for an outlet for publication without peer review for the going price of ₦20,000 (about $50 per paper) to be paid into the personal bank account of the Editor-in-Chief there, one Professor Okechukwu Nwafor.

This is the email that we sent to AJOL, where Mgbakọigba: Journal of African Studies is hosted requesting retraction:

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Greetings Kate and Roza,

I am writing to you to request the immediate withdrawal of two articles from Mgbakoigba: Journal of African Studies. I wrote to Professor Okechukwu Nwafor on June 25th to that effect.

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My co-authors confirmed withdrawal of both papers on the next day, June 26th, 2021 as evinced below:

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However, to date both papers are still on Mgbakoigba's page on AJOL filled with formatting errors, an author omission and typos:

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The errors contained therein, however, are not the primary reason for our withdrawal, but rather Mgbakoigba's predatory practices.

While there is no consensus in terms of what a predatory journal, I researched to find a typology of how they operate and came to find that Mgbakoigba fits 4 out of the 5 criteria laid out:

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Source: https://instr.iastate.libguides.com/predatory

As you will notice, there is no mention of fees on Mgbakoigba's AJOL page https://www.ajol.info/index.php/mjas/about, however, when both of my students and co-authors submitted articles there, they received emails indicating that there would be fees for peer reviews (which were never done), publication and that, additionally, there would be fees to even withdraw the paper. What raised a red flag apart from there being no mention of any of this on the website is that the fees were to be paid directly into the personal account of the Editor with whom we were corresponding as evinced below:

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When confronted with the above screenshots showing evidence of him requesting payment to his personal bank account, Professor Okechukwu Nwafor's response was that "All your listed allegations of payments to my personal bank account are false," however the evidence does not lie.

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His denial of what was obviously documented let me know that he is aware that he should not be engaging in that practice.

Further, according to both of my co-authors, neither one ever received a peer review report:

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Additionally, there was no copyediting stage so, as alluded to previously, there are all types of formatting and other errors in the version of the papers that have been published online:

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Thus, from our typology of predatory journals we have confirmation of the following:

1) Their primary goal is to make money (i.e. there will be fees).

In the case of Mgbakoigba, there were fees that are mentioned not on its official website but in private emails requesting payment directly into Professor Okechukwu Nwafor's personal account. A fact which he later denied despite clear evidence showing that he was engaging in this practice with the caveat that even withdrawing the paper would attract a fee. No matter what, he intended to get paid to the tune of ₦20,000 per paper (the equivalent of close to $50 per paper!). The only way we were able not to "pay to publish" is when I intimated to Professor Okechukwu Nwafor that such a practice smacks of predatory publishers:

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2) They do not care about the quality of the work published (i.e. no or little editing or peer-review).

In this instance, there were all types of formatting errors in the final paper as published. Additionally, there was no peer review despite the fact that the Mgbakoigba page states categorically that peer review would be done and sent to even papers that have been accepted.

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3) They engage in unethical business practices (i.e. not as advertised).

The "not as advertised" aspect can be found in the aforementioned concerns whereby they say they will do peer review, but they do no such thing. There is no mention of any payment whatsoever on the Mgbakoigba site but in emails we were told we must pay into the good professor's personal bank account. Further, there is no copyediting stage whereby formatting and any other errors could be caught. We simply received an email that the papers were published. When we pointed out the errors in the papers, we were told the following:

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Again, lining the good professor's pockets.

4) They fail to follow accepted standards or best practices of scholarly publishing (various).

As Editor-in-Chief of Ghana Journal of Linguistics, also hosted on AJOL I am aware that best practices include having a peer review process, which is missing from Mgbakoigba's process in the case of two independently submitted papers. Best practices also include having a copyediting stage, again missing from Mgbakoigba's processes. It would also be expected that if there are any legitimate fees, these would be evident and clearly articulated in the public domain, not under the table nor into someone's private bank account. Even in the case of legitimate journals that charge fees, to charge for peer review, for publishing, for withdrawal and for correcting errors introduced by the journal leaves us with no other conclusion than that Mgbakoigba fits the mold of a predatory journal.

We were told on June 27th, 2021 that AJOL would be contacted for the papers to be withdrawn:

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However, here we are on July 10th with both papers still there, rife with errors and available for download. This is an embarrassment to me and my co-authors and it makes me embarrassed for AJOL.

In my humble opinion Mgbakoigba is a sinking ship and I do not wish to go down with it nor would I like to see AJOL go down with it when their dubious practices are exposed with clear cut evidence.

The reasons outlined in brief above constitute our rationale for withdrawal of both papers. We wish that the two papers be removed entirely from AJOLs website as well as having the PDFs in their current state be taken down so that we may submit them to a legitimate journal.

I greatly appreciate your consideration and understanding with regard to this important matter.

Best,

(PS - I have copied both of my co-authors on this email so that they may be apprised of any developments with regard to this matter)

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While I had encouraged my co-authors to submit to journals on AJOL, we are now looking for a suitable publication outlet so that the articles can undergo peer review and follow best practices in the publication industry without being bullied into paying to publish or accepting an end-product that is not up to standard due to lack of copyediting.