JCKL Library Blog

Predatory Journal Publishers

Predatory journal publishers present themselves as reputable scholarly publishers but deceive authors by prioritizing profit over academic integrity. They exploit researchers seeking publication for career advancement while misrepresenting their true intentions.

Why It’s Important to Avoid Predatory Journals:

• Fake peer review - enables the spread of misinformation.
• Poor journal quality - can reduce the visibility and impact of your research.
• Risk of exploitation - you may lose rights over your work or fall victim to a scam.

Red Flags of Predatory Journals

• Claims to be peer-reviewed but lacks proper quality control.
• Promises fast peer-review process.
• Accepts any paper as long as fees are paid.
• Contains poor editing with grammar and citation errors.
• Lists fake or unverifiable editorial board members.
• Spams researchers with aggressive email invitations.
• Has mismatched contact details (location and info don’t align).
• Takes full copyright, preventing you from republishing elsewhere.
• Removes articles without notice to authors.

(Elmore & Weston, 2020)

Tips for avoiding predatory publishers:

• Think. Check. Submit.            
  • A checklist to guide you in selecting reputable publishers for your research.           

Library Resources for Identifying Predatory Publishers

Cabell’s Directory - Cabell’s is the complete source for journal information, evaluation metrics, and submission details-for universities of any size mostly in the social sciences and the physical sciences. Journalytics provides article submission information for more than 13,000 research journals, including analytics such as impact factors and altmetrics scores. Predatory Reports include journals identified as engaging in deceptive, fraudulent, and/or predatory practices. 

Web Resources

Retraction Watch - is a professional blog that monitors retracted scientific articles and offers a searchable database of retracted and corrected publications.

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References

Elmore, S. A., & Weston, E. H. (2020). Predatory journals: what they are and how to avoid them. Toxicologic pathology, 48(4), 607-610. https://doi-org.cyrano.ucmo.edu/10.1177/019262332092020

Post contribution by Sanja Gidakovic