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Avoiding Problematic Publishers

Learn what problematic (or "predatory") publishers are, how to identify and avoid them, and how to select reputable journals for publishing your research. No information on this guide should be construed as legal advice.

Problematic vs Predatory

There is not a universal consensus on the definition and terminology for problematic publishers and journals. They are commonly referred to as "predatory publishing" and share some key characteristics:

  • Prioritize self-interest and financial gain at the expense of quality scholarship
  • Exploit the open access publishing model to maximize revenue through author fees by accepting most articles
  • Provide misleading or false information to appear legitimate
  • Deviate from editorial and scholarly publishing best practices
  • Exploit researchers need to publish for career advancement
  • Lack transparency
  • Use aggressive solicitation practices

Is There a List of Problematic Journals?

Lists identifying reputable vs. problematic journals can be helpful, but they’re often incomplete, inconsistently updated, and vary in their assessment criteria. Journals may also change their practices over time. Subscription-based tools like Cabell’s Scholarly Analytics offer more curated insights, but the following resources provide a starting point for your own evaluation.

Signs of Problematic Publishers

Signs of problematic publishers and journals include:

  1. Sent from Gmail, Hotmail, or other personal account rather than a business account
  2. Promises rapid turnaround
  3. Uses flattery to convince you to submit your article
  4. Contains spelling and grammatical errors
  5. Uses excessive highlighting

It is worth noting that the rising use of AI tools such as Chat GPT could improve the quality of these emails, but receiving unsolicited requests to publish, especially in an aggressive manner, is a considerable red flag.

  1. May appear unprofessional
    1. Contains spelling and grammatical errors
    2. Uses stock photos, clip art, or distorted images
    3. Uses unnecessary highlighting
  2. May appear professional but...
    1. Journal scope is very broad
    2. Journal title is suspiciously similar to a well-respected journal in the field
    3. No clear contact information such as a physical address, email, phone number or only provides a webform
    4. No/fake International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
    5. Contains fake journals
    6. Articles are plagiarized or poor quality
  1. No information about author publishing fees, information is difficult to locate, vague, or not disclosed until submission 
  2. No retraction or withdraw policy, charges a fee. If very prominently displayed it could indicate withdrawal requests are frequent.
  1. No information about copyright retention policy
  2. No reference to Creative Commons licensing
  3. Claims to be open access but requires authors to transfer their copyright to the publisher
  1. No mention of peer review or few details about the review process
  2. Boasts an unusually short peer-review turnaround
  3. Peer reviewers primarily consist of authors from the same journal or publisher
  4. Doesn't provide the affiliations or qualifications of its reviewers
  1. Doesn't provide the affiliations or qualifications of its editorial board 
  2. Falsifies names of its editorial board
  3. Uses the names of legitimate authors without their permission
  1. Guarantees manuscript acceptance & publication 
  2. Promises rapid publication turnaround
  3. Claims to be indexed in reputable bibliographic databases but are not listed in those indexes
  4. Claims fake impact factors that can't be verified through trusted sources

Key Takeaways

  1. If a call for submission is not from a trusted source, treat it as spam or thoroughly investigate the legitimacy of the publisher.
  2. If what they promise seems too good to be true, it probably is.
  3. Always verify open access author fees prior to submission. This information should be very easy to locate on their website.
  4. Do not sign over your copyright. Reputable open access publishers permit authors to retain their copyright.