LibGuides: Publishing Guide : Predatory Publications

Predatory Publications

Be sure to browse through publication or publisher websites before submitting your research.

Consider the following, as you assess whether a publisher or publication may be predatory -

Is the title of the publication very close to that of a reputable journal? Some predatory journals "hijack" titles or are confusingly similar to well-regarded titles.
Explore whether the editor, and/or board members are all listed on the website. Are credentials and affiliations clearly stated on the website? If so, be sure to check to see they are valid.
Is the focus of the journal clearly stated? Does it bring together subject areas that are not generally published together?
Does the title of the journal use the name of a western country, even though its publication is located elsewhere?
Does the publisher's website, or the articles listed there include a number of grammatical errors?
Is the publication you are considering indexed in many or any databases?
Check Worldcat to be sure the journal you are investigating is easily located in libraries.
Are the analytics included on the publisher website verifiable elsewhere?
Is the journal you are evaluating included in reputable lists of publications such as SCOPUS, Ulrich's, the Directory of Open Access Journals, and the like?

The following sites are all places you can go to evaluate whether the publisher or publication you are considering is legitimate or not.

Think, Check, Submit - Checklist

An online tool that helps researchers discover what they need to know as they assess whether a given publisher or publication is suitable for their research.

Journal Evaluation Tool (PDF)
Librarians at Loyola Marymount University have developed a rubric to help researchers evaluate journal/publishers to which they may submit their research articles for publication.
Principles of Transparency and Best Practices in Scholarly Publishing

The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), are all scholarly organizations that have collaborated together in an effort to identify principles of transparency and best practices that set apart legitimate journals and publishers from those non-legitimate ones.

To find out more information about a particular journal title try one of the directories listed below. Ulrich's is the most well-known and comprehensive of the ones listed. (Currently, Bowman Library does not subscribe to Ulrich's or Cabell's)

Cabell's Directory of Publishing Opportunities Cabell's is a searchable, curated database of scholarly publications. Currently, Bowman Library's subscription provides information on more than 3,300 journals in the fields of accounting, economics, finance, management, marketing, psychology, and psychiatry. Most entries include editorial contact information, information about the review process (including acceptance rates), and manuscript submission guidelines.
Ulrichsweb.com: Ulrich's Periodicals Directory An authoritative knowledgebase of information about more than 300,000 serials of all types from around the world from academic and scholarly journals, peer-reviewed titles, open access journals, online publications, newspapers and other resources. Bibliographic records provide details including ISSN and title, publisher, online availability, language, subject area, abstracting & indexing coverage, searchable tables of contents, and full-text reviews.

The following are great places to investigate open access publications:

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) The DOAJ is a highly regarded, quality-controlled list of reputable open access journals. It has been criticized in the past for letting some questionable journals appear on the list. However, in 2014, the organization undertook a significant overhaul requiring all journals to reapply for inclusion. The new criteria for inclusion are much more rigorous.
Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) Legitimate Open Access publishers are often members of this association.

So-called “predatory” publishing⁠ is based on an exploitative model involving the charging of fees to authors (also known as Article Processing Charges - apcs) with little or no evaluation of articles as to their quality or the provision of necessary editorial, indexing, and other services regularly offered by most reputable publishers.

The following are some of the useful guides that list predatory or blacklisted journals and/or publishers: