DUPLICATE PUBLICATION IN A PREDATORY JOURNAL
A paper was submitted to a journal. While the paper was being processed, the authors contacted the journal and advised that a predatory journal had published the same paper without their permission (the authors apparently submitted it in error, then withdrew it, but the journal proceeded with publishing). The authors are currently pursuing a legal case against the predatory journal to have the article taken down, but have asked the editor to proceed with their journal’s usual review processes.
The journal would not normally consider or publish a paper already published elsewhere but have not encountered this situation where a predatory journal has published something against an author's will (and presumably without any quality control, peer review, etc). It is possible that the predatory journal may never take down the article, blocking the work from publication in a legitimate journal.
COPE advice
The situation is unfortunate but not uncommon, and must be considered as a life experience for the authors. Whether or not it was an error, the authors submitted their paper to the predatory journal, which was published, has a DOI, is searchable/findable/citable by meta-analyses and other reviews. Hence the journal should not consider or publish the paper while a formally published version exists elsewhere, whether or not the authors agreed to it and whether or not the publisher is disreputable.
The editor may wish to suggest that the authors speak to the library and/or legal team at their institution, who may be able to help in having the illegitimate version of the paper removed. If the authors did not transfer copyright or approve the proofs, then this puts them in a stronger position. However, if copyright has been transferred or a publishing agreement signed and the status of manuscript acceptance has been acknowledged, legal proceedings would have to take their course first.
If the predatory journal refuses or ignores the authors' request to take down the paper, there is nothing the journal can do. Unfortunately, this is an issue between the authors and the "predatory" journal, and it is likely that it may never be resolved. For future submissions, the editor might wish to highlight to the authors the Think.Check.Submit. initiative, which provides tools to help researchers identify trusted journals for their research.
