User:JL-Bot/Questionable.cfg/General

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Disclaimer / Warning Shortcut WP:CITEWATCH/SETUP This is the setup page of Q9 in the FAQ for the update schedule. This list is a starting point to detect unreliable sources which are cited by Wikipedia, but it does not answer whether it is appropriate to cite them. Due to the somewhat arbitrary nature of what exactly constitutes an unreliable source, as well as imperfect matching algorithms, the list may feature publications and publishers which... are flat-out promoting pseudo/junk scholarship or quackery are flat-out predatory/vanity venues, with sham peer-review processes were once-reliable, but have since been acquired by predatory publishers were once-unreliable, but no longer engage in problematic practices reflect the sources' good but imperfect judgment of what is unreliable are problematic in some areas (e.g. pseudoscience), but reliable in others (e.g. news) are problematic in some other way (e.g. deprecated sources ) are problematic but used in an primary sources about frauds ) are misclassified because of a spelling variation (red links especially) are misclassified because of miscategorization , or flawed bot logic are reliable, but share names with imposter publications and publishers are about pseudoscholarship as a topic, rather than being pseudoscholarly themselves While many, if not most, publications and publishers on this list have some questionable aspects to their publishing practices, these can still be Unreliable/Predatory Source Detector user script may also interest you. Additions and removals from the listing – including false positives – can be discussed at WP:JCW/EXCLUDE .

Note: Many entries on these lists will be things that should not normally in found in a |journal= parameter. They are included for two main reasons:

1. poor template usage – for example, if a website/publisher is put in a journal parameter by mistake (|journal=UnreliableWebsite.com) these will be picked up
2. redirect detection – oftentimes Wikipedia will not have an article about a specific journal, but it will have a redirect to its publisher (Unreliable Journal → Foo Society of Nonsense) or some other relevant article (Unreliable Journal → Founding editor)

Unreliable fields

Note: Most of these categories don't contain publications themselves, but are listed so that publications that redirect to unreliable people and organizations (e.g.

Mirrors and forks

Self-published

Unpublished

WP:RSP

Hijacked journals

Hijacked journals are journals whose "websites or branding have been co-opted by a predatory journal or publisher". Meaning that these are legitimate publications, but with fraudsters posing as them.