The Publication Process
17 | Don’t Fall Prey to Predatory Journals
Key Point
Best Practices
The number of scientific journals has grown explosively in recent years, but not all journals are suitable venues for academic research. Nowadays, care is needed to ensure that a target journal is not a predatory one. In simplest terms, a predatory journal is one that engages in unethical publishing practices. Reputable journals routinely perform services like peer review, copy editing, abstracting and indexing, paper archiving, errata postings, and managing conflicts of interest. These services are supported by subscription fees or open access fees obtained from authors. Some reputable journals will even help to promote the research they publish on social media. In contrast, predatory publishers are profit-motivated entities that often skip or scrimp on such steps to keep costs low, which leads to the publication of poor-quality papers and shoddy science. A few predatory journals have even fabricated their editorial boards and faked journal impact factors. Steer clear of them. If a paper is inadvertently published in a predatory journal, at best it will be ignored by the scientific community, but at worst, it could hurt the author’s credibility.
Unfortunately, there is currently no systematic way to identify predatory journals with ease. Several lists of questionable journals have popped up over the years, but use of such lists can be problematic. Specifically, these lists can mistakenly omit a predatory journal if the list is not updated regularly, or these lists can erroneously identify a small, under-resourced journal as predatory when in reality it is not. My best advice to avoid predatory journals is to be aware of the problem, use established databases to look up reputable publishers (Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), ISSN Portal, Ulrichsweb Global Serials Directory), verify journal impact factors, and know the warning signs. Consultation with a medical librarian also can be incredibly helpful.[1]
The National Institutes of Health (NOT-OD-18-011) offers these characteristics of disreputable publishers:[2]
- misleading pricing (e.g., lack of transparency about article processing charges);
- failure to disclose information to authors;
- aggressive tactics to solicit article submissions;
- inaccurate statements about editorial board membership; and
- misleading or suspicious peer-review processes.
For example, predatory journals may not disclose their office location and often send multiple emails to authors to urge a submission.
Be on the lookout for inaccessible or odd-looking contact information, poorly designed websites, unrealistic peer-review and publication timelines, or reluctance to turn over copyright despite fees paid for fully open access articles. Reach out to the members of the editorial board if you have questions about their involvement.
A powerful system that has been developed by the scholarly publishing community is “Think. Check. Submit.”[3] Think: is this a trusted journal; Check: assess the journal with the checklist below; Submit: only submit your paper to a journal that has been verified to be a reputable source.
Journal checklist to assess if a journal is trusted from Think. Check. Submit. (This content, duplicated here, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.[4])
Do you or your colleagues know the journal?
- Have you read any articles in the journal before?
- Is it easy to discover the latest papers in the journal?
- Name of the journal: the name is unique; it is not the same or easily confused with another journal.
- Can you cross check with information about the journal in the ISSN portal?
Can you easily identify and contact the publisher?
- Is the publisher name clearly displayed on the journal website?
- Can you contact the publisher by telephone, email, and post?
Is the journal clear about the type of peer review it uses?
- Does the website mention whether the process involves independent/external reviewers, how many reviewers per paper?
- Is the publisher offering a review by an expert editorial board or by researchers in your subject area?
- The journal doesn’t guarantee acceptance or a very short peer review time.
Are articles indexed and/or archived in dedicated services?
- Will your work be indexed/archived in an easily discoverable database?
- Does the publisher ensure long term archiving and preservation of digital publications?
- Does the publisher use permanent digital identifiers?
Is it clear what fees will be charged?
- Does the journal site explain what these fees are for and when they will be charged?
- Does the publisher explain on their website how they are financially supported?
- Do they mention the currency and amount of any fees?
- Does the publisher website explain whether or not waivers are available?
Are guidelines provided for authors on the publisher website?
- For open access journals, does the publisher have a clear license policy? Are there preferred licenses? Are there exceptions permitted depending on the needs of the author? Are license details included on all publications?
- Does the publisher allow you to retain copyright of your work? Can you share your work via, for example, an institutional repository, and under what terms?
- Does the publisher have a clear policy regarding potential conflicts of interest for authors, editors, and reviewers?
- Can you tell what formats your paper will be available in? (e.g. HTML, XML, PDF)
- Does the journal provide any information about metrics of usage or citations?
Is the publisher a current member of a recognized industry initiative?
- Are they a current member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and follow its guidelines?
- If the journal is open access, is it listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)?
- If the publisher offers an open access option, is it a current member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers’ Association (OASPA)?
- Is the journal hosted on one of INASP’s Journals Online platforms (for journals published in Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Central America, and Mongolia) or on African Journals Online (AJOL, for African journals)?
- If the journal is open access, is it hosted on Scielo (for Latin American scientific journals)?
- If the journal is open access, is it indexed in Latindex (for journals that are published in Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain, and Portugal)?
- If the journal is open access, is it indexed by Redalyc (for journals that are published in Latin America and the Caribbean, Spain, and Portugal)?
- Is the publisher a member of another trade association?
- Gastel (2021). Choosing a Journal for Submission: Don’t Fall Prey. Methodist Debakey Cardiovascular Journal, 17(4), 90–92. https://doi.org/10.14797/mdevj.650. ↵
- National Institutes of Health. (2017, November 3). Statement on Article Publication Resulting from NIH Funded Research. https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-18-011.html ↵
- Think. Check. Submit. (n.d). https://thinkchecksubmit.org/ ↵
- Think. Check. Submit. (n.d.). Journals. https://thinkchecksubmit.org/journals/ ↵
