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

An increase in scholarly publishing has been accompanied by a proliferation of potentially illegitimate publishers (PIPs), commonly known as "predatory publishers." These PIPs often engage in fraudulent practices and publish articles that are not subject to the same scrutiny as those published in journals from legitimate publishers (LPs). This places academics at risk, in particular students who utilize journal articles for learning and assignments.