Scholarly Impact: Predatory Publishing

Predatory publishing is a practice where a company creates a journal (or in some cases monographs or academic conferences) on false pretenses for the purposes of defrauding authors, helping authors deceive their colleagues, or both.  Predatory journals make their money through expensive Article Processing Charges (APCs) to scholars in exchange for accepting their manuscripts for review.  The publisher may promise rigorous peer review or editorial oversight, but they appear to publish every author who has paid the fee. 

Known Deceptive Practices:

• They often solicit content though personalized spam email solicitations, sometimes even praising the scholar's earlier work and inviting them to submit a new manuscript.
• They will advertise a false impact factor or journal citation count.
• Their editorial boards sometimes feature scholars who have not consented to be on their board.
• They falsely claim to be indexed in prominent databases and indexes.
• They will often pretend to be headquartered in larger European or North American cities, like London or New York.
• They may falsely claim to be affiliated with prestigious organizations.

Because legitimate and scholarly open access journals or open access models of publication charge author processing charges, you will need to conduct further investigation to determine if a journal is predatory or not.  There is no one single factor to determine this, but here are some common-sense guidelines to consider:

• Do you or your colleagues know this journal?  Have you read any articles in the journal before?  
• Can you easily identify and contact the publisher?  Can you contact the publisher by telephone, email, and postal mail?
• Is the journal clear about the type of peer review and its peer review process?
• Do you see poor language usage, spelling mistakes, low production quality?  Both in the articles published and the presentation of the website?
• Do you see an ethics policy?  Legitimate open-access journals often contain ethics declarations or ethics policies.
• Is the article indexed in scholarly databases?  FYI: You should not use GoogleScholar as an adequate index as predatory journals are frequently indexed in GoogleScholar.  Use reputable indexes like Web of Science, Proquest Central, Medline, or PsycINFO.   Ask your librarian for more help with this.
• Is it clear what fees will be charged?  Does it explain clearly what the fees will be used for?  Are they charging a fee at the time of manuscript submission?  Do they promise to publish your article after you have paid the fee?
• Who is the editor-in-chief and are they clearly identified with contact information?  Are the they a scholar or the owner?  A common sign of a predatory journal is if the owner or publisher is also the editor-in-chief.
• Do you recognize the editorial board?  Do the scholars on the board mention the journal on their own websites?
• Does the publisher promise or emphasize fast publication times (e.g. within a week or 48 hours?)
• Is the publisher a member of a recognized industry initiative or trade association?  Is the journal listed in a reputable open access journal platforms?  Examples of reputable open access journal directories include:
  • Directory of Open Access Journals
  • INASP Journals Online 
  • African Journals Online (AJOLS) 

See also the "16 Principles of Transparency" criteria developed in partnership with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).  Their criteria offers a best practice guideline for scholarly publishers and a method to evaluate the validity of open access journals.

Source: Think.Check.Submit.org. https://thinkchecksubmit.org/

For more information on the world of predatory publishing, including the resources used to build this guide, check out this recommended reading:

• Anderson, R. (2019, March 19). Deceptive publishing. OSI Issue Briefs. https://doi.org/10.13021/osi2019.2419
• Beall, J. (2012). Predatory publishing. The Scientist, 26(8), 22-23,11. Retrieved from https://libcatalog.atu.edu:443/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1081616520?accountid=8364 
• Beall, J. (2014). Scholarly open-access publishing and the problem of predatory publishers. Journal of Biological Physics and Chemistry, 14(1), 22-24. https://doi.org/10.4024/02be14f.jbpc.14.01  
• Cobey, K. D., Lalu, M. M., Skidmore, B., Nadera, A., Agnes, G., & Moher, D. (2018). What is a predatory journal? A scoping review. F1000Research, 7. http://dx.doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.15256.1
• Committee on Publication Ethics Council. (2019, November). Predatory publishing. COPE Discussion Document.  https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.3.6 
• Eaton, S. E. (2018). Avoiding predatory journals and questionable conferences: A resource guide.  University of Calgary. http://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/20
• McCrostie, J. (2018). Predatory conferences: A case of academic cannibalism. International Higher Education, 2(93), 6-8.  http://ejournals.bc.edu/ojs/index.php/ihe/article/view/10425/9008
• Redhead, C. (2015, June 22). Principles of transparency and best practice in scholarly publishing. Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association. https://oaspa.org/principles-of-transparency-and-best-practice-in-scholarly-publishing-2/
• Think. Check. Submit. (2020). Home. https://thinkchecksubmit.org/check/