Predatory Journals:
Predatory journals and publishers charge fees to authors to publish their articles without providing standard editorial and publishing services that are practiced by legitimate scholarly journals.
The number of predatory journals has skyrocketed in the past few years. There isn't one resource to identify potential predatory journals; use the Red Flags Checklist below to identify potential predatory journals or contact the Library with questions.
Red Flags/Warning Signs of Predatory Journals:
- Flattering email soliciting to submit an article or serve on editorial board
- Awkward or inappropriate terminology
- Overly polite with many promises and urgency
- Offer sounds too good to be true
- Journal title sounds prestigious yet similar to other journals
- Mimics prestigious sounding but vague terms
- Sounds similar to reputable publications by switching order of words or combining multiple titles together
- Website looks amateurish and unprofessional
- Vague sections with little transparency and clarity
- Same publisher publishes multiple journals in unrelated disciplines
- Contact information is missing or incomplete (Google the address to see where "home office" is located)
- Metrics and Indexing
- No ISSN or DOI
- Invented or fake metrics; can't find in established databases
- Quality and Transparency
- Lack of clear instructions or publishing process and policies
- Unclear information about author fees
- Peer review is non-existent or take place "immediately" (may be non-existent)
- Negative Reputation
- Google the name of the journal and the word "predatory" to see if others have written about it