Skip to Main Content

Nursing- Legacy: Choosing Where to Publish

Created by Health Science Librarians

Is it a trustworthy journal?

Predatory journals take advantage of researchers, faculty, students, and other authors by luring them to publish in a questionable journal.  Some key characteristics of questionable journals are

•Exploits faculty, researchers, & students for money
•Solicits authors, reviewers, & editors via spam emails
•Provides incomplete, incorrect, or no information about fees
•Steals legitimate journals’ identities, content, & logos
•Implies value by using misleading or fake metrics
•Performs little or no copyediting, proofreading, or peer review, or reviewers may be unqualified
•No editor, fake editors, no review board, insufficient number of board members, or same editors for journals of different disciplines
•Publishes a large set of unrelated journals
 

How can I tell?

Beall's Lists
List of the [alleged] bad guys:
 
List of hijacked journals:
 
List of misleading metrics:
 
Note: Beall's lists are no longer available on the web.  These are archived links.
 
Or check resources such as:
Scopus (compare journals)
Web of Science Journal Citation Reports
SCImago Journal Ranking Lists
 
 

Finding places to publish

It can be challenging to find places to publish your work, but here are some online tools to assist you.

Look up a journal to see its impact or publishing timeline.

Enter some search terms to find a journal.

Enter your abstract to find a journal.

Myths and Misconceptions

Open access does not mean a journal is predatory. 

Not all Open Access journals are fee-based.

Fee-based publication does not mean a journal is predatory.

Not all journals with questionable practices are predatory.

Ask Us

  • Last Updated: May 19, 2025 4:03 PM
  • URL: https://guides.lib.unc.edu/nursing_