Guides & Tutorials: Open Access: Be Aware of Predetory Publishers

Be Aware of Predetory Publishers

Many fake or predatory journals and book publishers have emerged since the change in the publishing model. These publishers often require payment of an Article Processing Charge (APC) or Book Processing Charge (BPC) without providing a rigorous peer review process. As an author, you need to be cautious and avoid submitting your work to any of these predatory publishers. Publishing with such publishers may not only ruin your research career, but also harm the credibility of the entire academic community.

Quick tools to help you find a reputable journal or identify potentially predatory journals:

Think. Check. Submit
The checklist is a tool that will help you discover what you need to know when assessing whether or not a publisher is suitable for your research.
Beall's List
This is a list of questionable, scholarly open-access publishers. We recommend that scholars read the available reviews, assessments and descriptions provided here, and then decide for themselves whether they want to submit articles, serve as editors or on editorial boards.
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
The directory of open-access, peer-reviewed journals. DO NOT submit to an OA journal that's NOT indexed in this directory.
Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) is a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting integrity in academic publishing. It is useful for verifying a journal’s ethical standards, but it should NOT be the ONLY criterion for judging overall reputation or scientific quality.
COPE’s mission is to offer thought leadership on publication ethics and provide practical resources to educate and support editors, journal staff, publishers, universities, organisations and individuals. It also provides a platform for editors of peer-reviewed journals to address issues related to the integrity of the scientific record.

Here are some additional indicators to facilitate journal evaluation:

OA Journal Quality Indicators, adapted from Grand Valley State University Libraries.
√ Positive Indicators	X Negative Indicators
► Journal: Scope - well-defined and clearly stated Primary audience - researchers/practitioners Editor, Editorial Board - recognised experts in the field Peer review - provided transparency of editorial boards and peer review policies. Background - affiliated with or sponsored by an established scholarly society or academic institution Publishing fees (if any) - easily found on the journal website and clearly explained Copyright policy - clearly indicate the rights for use and re-use of content at article level (e.g., Creative Commons CC-BY license) Has an ISSN (e.g., 1234-5678) Registered in UlrichsWeb, Global Serials Directory Listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) Indexed by major subject databases ► Articles published: Within the scope of the journal and meet the standards of the discipline Have DOIs (e.g., DOI:10.1006/abio.1996.0292) ► Publisher: Is a member of Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) Is a member of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)	► Journal: Website - difficult to locate or identify Scope - absent or extremely vague Editorial Board - real researchers but names are used without their knowledge Instructions to authors - not available Indexing - falsely claim that the journal is indexed in prestigious professional indexes (e.g. SCIE, SSCI); misrepresent the Impact Factor of the journal Submission fee - ask for submission fee and not refundable Peer review - no peer-review, or unclearly stated Contact information - absent, or using a commercial email domain (e.g., gmail.com) ► Articles published: Out of scope of the journal Repeat lead authors in same issue ► Publisher: Office location - fake or misrepresent (e.g., headquarter in New York but eventually in Nigeria) Direct marketing (i.e., spamming) or other unsolicited advertising Negative reputation (check Beall's list of potential predatory OA journals and publishers)

Open Access

Publisher's and Funder's OA Policies

TA infographic

Be Aware of Predetory Publishers