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Choosing the right journal for your research

Journal Quality 

 

No individual criterion on this list is sufficient to condemn or exonerate a journal - many legitimate journals will not meet one or more of these criteria, and some predatory journals will meet some of these criteria.

However, taken together, a combination of all these factors should add weight to the journal being safe or unsafe.

Do not rely on the journal's own information for answers (such as whether it is listed in DOAJ, etc) - check the authoritative source.

Quality Checks

Journal quality checking begins with your personal experience. If you are familiar with the journal or publisher and use their content in your research there is a high likelihood the journal is reputable. 

Reputable journals are typically accessible via a variety of means, including telephone, post and email. If there are any suspicions about information provided it is good practice to check if this information, such as an address, is accurate via a web search.

A journal's peer review process should be clearly stated and transparent. Subject expects conducting peer review processes should not be members of the journal's editorial team. DOAJ suggests a transparent journal should clearly state the following on their website:

  • Whether or not the content is peer reviewed.
  • Who conducts the peer review, for example, external experts or editorial board members.
  • The type of peer review process(es) used
  • Any policies related to the peer review procedures, for example:
    • Use of author recommended reviewers.
    • Any masking of identities, and if so who is masked and to whom.
    • Whether or not supplementary material is subjected to peer review.
    • Whether or not reviews are posted with articles.
    • Whether or not reviews are signed or anonymous.
  • How a decision about a manuscript is ultimately made and who is involved.
  • Any exceptions to the peer review process, such as specific article types that do not undergo peer review.

Your selected journal is more likely to reach a wider audience and have greater research impact if it is indexed in key databases used by researchers in your chosen discipline. Be aware that low-quality predatory journals can be indexed with limited articles available in databases momentarily before being removed, so it is recommended to check if your selected journal is significantly indexed with multiple articles available.

COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) is committed to educating and supporting editors, publishers, universities, research institutes, and all those involved in publication ethics. Members of COPE should have robust and well described, publicly documented practices in all of the following areas for their journals:

  • Allegations of misconduct
  • Authorship and contributorship
  • Complaints and appeals
  • Conflicts of interest/Competing interests
  • Data and reproducibility
  • Ethical oversight
  • Intellectual property
  • Journal management
  • Peer review processes
  • Post-publication discussions and corrections

DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals is a unique and extensive index of diverse open access journals from around the world, driven by a growing community, committed to ensuring quality content is freely available online for everyone.

The Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association is a non-profit trade association of open access journal and book publishers. Approved members have been through a rigorous application review process and adhere to OASPA's Code of Conduct.

Predatory Checklists

Characteristics of predatory publishers

  • Predatory publishers 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
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Flaky Academic Journals is an online blog detailing the latest news on predatory publishers and potential misconduct.
Beall's list is a compilation of potentially predatory publishers to be cautious of. Be aware the list is not exhaustive and was last updated in 2021.
The ICANN registration data lookup tool gives you the ability to look up the current registration data for domain names and Internet number resources. If you are suspicious of a publisher's website, this tool will allow you to discover who owns the website and if their records are up to date.

Additional Checklists

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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