Purposefully publishing a fraudulent scholarly paper is considered research misconduct and never tolerated in academia. True scholars work hard to create and publish work in legitimate ways. However, fraudulent publishers--companies that solicit and quickly publish research papers without review or quality assurances that evaluate, judge, and validate research--are increasing sharply in numbers with few checks. Deceptive practices in research have the potential to undermine credibility and legitimacy of honest academic work and the products of research. Here, we describe the growth of these ethically questionable publication practices, characteristics that are typical of them, and provide suggestions for best practices that should be utilized by research administrators, researchers, and their students to reduce negative impacts on research.