Predatory publishers or journals are those which charge authors a fee for publication with no intention of providing the expected services – such as editorial or peer review – in return. Charging a fee is a legitimate business model, but the publisher should be providing a good publishing service in return. Authors, realising that they have submitted their paper to a questionable publisher, can find they are charged a large fee if they want to withdraw their article.
The concept of ‘predatory’ journals has many names: fake journals, questionable journals, illegitimate journals, deceptive journals, dark journals, and journals “operating in bad faith”.
Definition and synonyms from Think Check Submit.
Journal Evaluation Tool - by Marie Kennedy, Shilpa Rele, and Nataly Blas of Loyola Marymount University. This is a rubric and scoring sheet to help evaluate the quality and credibility of a journal.
Is this predatory? Checklist for evaluation journals - by Megan Wacha of CUNY Office of Library Services.
Be iNFORMED checklist - a checklist for evaluating unknown journals and publishers from Duke University Medical Center Library and Archives.
12 Questions to Assess a Journal/Publishers - by Judit H. Ward.
Think. Check. Submit. This is a checklist to help authors identify trustworthy journals.
How to Assess a Journal Infographic from the Canadian Association of Research Libraries.
Predatory Publishers in 3 Minutes.
Credit: Office of Scholarly Communications University of Cambridge.
DOAJ: Transparency and Best Practice - a guide which outlines principles of transparency and best practice for scholarly publications.
How to avoid predatory publishers - by the American Psychological Association (APA).
How to avoid predatory journals - a five point plan - BMJ Blog post by Jocalyn Clark.
Example email from a predatory journal - from Christian Bokhove's blog.
DOAJ blacklist - this is a list of journals that falsely claim to be part of DOAJ.
Open Access Journal Quality Indictors - by Sarah Beaubien and Max Echard.
How to Spot Predatory Publishers by Claire Sewell, the Office of Scholarly Communication, Cambridge University Libraries.
Credit: Think. Check. Submit.
Publish and Perish? How to Spot a Predatory Publisher.
Credit: Claire Sewell - University of Cambridge, Office of Scholarly Communications
Understanding Predatory Publishing.
Credit: Eric Robinson Scholarly Communications Librarian with the University of St. Augustine Library.
Credit: Allen Press (CC BY ND NC 3.0)
The Library, Technological University of the Shannon: Midwest
