Choosing Where to Publish: Predatory publishing
Created by Health Science Librarians
Is it a predatory 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
Misleading metrics
There are several common measures of impact including ISI's Journal Impact Factor, the Eigenfactor, SCImago Journal Ranking, and a few others.
Predatory journals often try to mislead researchers by providing names of metrics that are very similar to real metrics, as seen in the following list.
Some of these metrics try to use the prestige of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) or sound similar to the Digital Object Identifier (DOI). Did it work on you?
Common tricks predatory publishers use
•Unsolicited contact following recent publication/presentation
•Doesn’t match your field of research
•Acknowledges you as a busy and important researcher (doing you a favor)
•Gives you a short deadline to decide
•Offers you a discount on publishing costs if you submit by the deadline
•Charges excessive fees for publication
•Publishes your work immediately
•Accepts just about anything content-wise
How to check a journal
Search for the journal on the web
•Don’t EVER click links in your email if you don’t know the sender
•Are there angry posts or negative articles about the journal?
•Beall’s list still “exists” but you can evaluate journals yourself!
Check out the journal’s website! Look for
•the journal’s contact information
•what the journal has published (past issues)
•the editorial board
•author instructions/ article fees
•what other journals the company publishes
Check where it is indexed by searching for the journal title in Ulrich's directory of journals. If it's not listed, or if it's not indexed in any well-known databases, it may be predatory!
How can I tell what is reputable?
