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Publishing: Predatory publishers

What is a predatory publisher?

Characteristics of predatory publishers
  •  They exist to make money and not to promote scholarship or advance knowledge. They often take advantage of the "author pays" model of open access publishing. However, charging to publish open access is a model used by many reputable journals and should not be the only factor used to identify predatory journals.
  • They engage in questionable business practices, such as excessive author fees or failing to disclose fees to authors
  • The do not adhere to standards of scholarly publishing, especially in regards to peer review
  • Some predatory publishers are buying up small, legitimate publishers
  • There are rising instances of predatory conferences as well
Predatory publishers may...
  • Try to present themselves as legitimate journals by using very similar titles or in some cases even the same title
  • Create fake academic societies to try and appear legitimate
  • Have unprofessional-looking websites, with poor grammar and design
  • Promise very short review times of only one to two weeks
  • Add people's names to their editorial board without their permission
  • Have a very wide scope and a lack of clear policies on things such as licencing, copyright and peer review

Checklist

How to detect predatory journals
  • Have you heard of them? You will probably be familiar with the major journals in your field.
  • Some fields have 'white lists' you can publish in, but be aware they may overlook new titles.
  • Did they email you to solicit articles from you? Did they offer to make you a keynote speaker or editor? Many academics are unaware they are listed on the editorial boards of predatory journals.
  • Do they promise very short review times or 'guaranteed article acceptance'? As you know, this simply does not happen in academia!
  • Is the website unprofessional? For example, poor English and grammar, badly designed, making false impact factor claims, the title is a slight variation of an actual title.
  • Is it listed in Ulrichs? This is a database available through the library that lists journal publication details. , including if it is peer reviewed.
  • Are the ownership, publisher contact details and policies present and clear?

Be aware that no single criteria is sufficient to assess a journal's status. Many legitimate journals may meet one or more criteria, and some predatory journals may not. Take a range of criteria together in combination to add weight to the journal being predatory or not. Also, do not rely on the journal's own information for answers, check the authoritative source yourself.

Resources to help you to assess journals

These tools can help you assess a journal. None of these tools are 100% reliable though, and some are no longer updated. You will still need to check carefully and make your own assessment. Some will require you to log in using your Federation details.

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