Predatory journals exploit the open access author-pays model for their own profit by using unscrupulous methods to entice authors to publish with them. They conduct little or no peer review or editing work.
Checklist for Authors & Evaluation Tools
As an author, always carefully assess an unfamiliar publisher/journal before submitting your work. When trying to determine the quality of a journal or publisher, ask yourself the questions listed below. Use some of the tools listed here to help you determine validity.
1. If the journal is open access, is it listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)?
2. Is the journal listed in Ulrich's(an authoritative source on publisher information, including open access journals)?
A directory of information on more than 300,000 periodicals, including academic and scholarly journals, Open Access publications, peer-reviewed titles, popular magazines, newspapers, newsletters, and more.
3. Is the journal indexed in a key database such as Web of Knowledge, PsycINFO, etc.
In response to the growing number of predatory publishers, Cabells Predator Reports identifies journals which use deceptive practices that threaten the quality of scholarly publication. Predatory behaviours include misleading impact measurements, false claims, and irregular publication practices.
5. Are impact metrics provided by the journal recognized? (lack of impact metrics does not indicate low journal quality, as not all reputable journals have impact metrics)
The source for information on the impact factor of top tier scholarly journals, in all fields of Science and Social Sciences. Assesses how often articles from each scholarly journal are cited by other researchers, to provide a relative rating of the journal impact in ieah field of study.
6. Is the publisher a member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA)?
Think. Check. Submit. helps researchers identify trusted journals for their research. It is a simple checklist researchers can use to assess the credentials of a journal or publisher.
Predatory conferences operate like predatory journals. They often charge high registration fees and focus on profit over scholarly communication. They use spam email tactics to promote their events and may even advertise speakers who have not committed to present at the conference.
If you are unsure about the credibility of a conference, there are some things you can do:
Determine if the conference is hosted by a university, or government or research institution.
Predatory conferences are often advertised as one-time occurrence, rather than an annual event. If it an annual conference, you can check the previous programmes and lists of speakers to help assess the quality or significance of the conference.
Determine if there is a peer-review process for submissions, if so, what is the acceptance rate?
Often there will also be an opportunity to get your research published in the journal associated with the conference. Check whether the publication is indexed in any of the major databases in your field and examine the quality of research published in previous issues.
Think. Check. Attend is an initiative that aims to guide and assist researchers and scholars to judge the legitimacy and academic credentials of conferences in order to help them decide whether to attend.
