HSE Library: Open Access Research Publishing: Predatory Publishing

What is predatory publishing?

• Essentially, predatory publishing is a form of online scam directed at researchers

• Predatory journals charge APCs (article processing charges) to publish articles, but neglect to provide the peer review that is central to academic publishing

• Research in predatory journals thus contains no quality control. It may be plagiarised, fraudulent or scientifically worthless. Even if it isn't, it will be

tainted by association.

• Predatory journals make false claims about indexing, impact factors

• Publishing in a predatory journal can lead to loss of reputation as well as income

How can I tell what's not predatory?

There are online resources to help researchers to determine legitimate publishers from predatory ones:

Directory of Open Access Journals
DOAJ is a ‘whitelist’ of Open Access journals meeting a defined set of quality criteria. It provides information on journals’ policies, requirements, charges, databases indexed etc. DOAJ has tightened its inclusion criteria to better exclude predatory journals.
Think. Check. Submit.
Guides researchers in choosing journals to submit to; provides checklists and advice; supported by DOAJ, BioMed Central, UKSG and more
Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA)
Sets voluntary standards for Open Access publishers. As with DOAJ, rigorous criteria are applied to prospective members

How to recognise predatory journals

• Suspiciously fast turnaround times

• Temptingly low APCs (article processing charges)

• Poor formatting or grammar, clumsy English

• Vague contact details, use of e.g. Gmail accounts

• Use of dubious or non-existent “impact factors”

• Unsolicited emails (spam) inviting submissions or offering the chance to be an editor

• Journal websites with vast numbers of journal title

• Claims to index in Google Scholar, EbscoHost, ResearchGate, ProQuest etc

• Vagueness surrounding payment issues, or dubious payment methods

• Demand for copyright transfer despite OA claims•Titles that closely mimic well-known journals

• Use of ‘American’, ‘European’ in journals with zero / minimal presence in these regions

• Obscure origin or company registration details