Illegitimate publishers in physiology: attracting citations and infiltration into legitimate databases

Illegitimate publishing exists in physiology, with 8,801 articles being published in 67 potentially illegitimate journals. Potentially illegitimate journals claim to be indexed by databases such as Google Scholar and Index Copernicus in an attempt to appear legitimate. Lists of legitimate and illegitimate publishers show overlap and some illegitimate articles infiltrate PubMed Central, leading to citations from the wider academic sector.