- Nature's Checklist
- Check that the publisher provides full, verifiable contact information, including address, on the journal site. Be cautious of those that provide only web contact forms.
- Check that a journal's editorial board lists recognized experts with full affiliations. Contact some of them and ask about their experience with the journal or publisher.
- Check that the journal prominently displays its policy for author fees.
- Be wary of e-mail invitations to submit to journals or to become editorial board members.
- Read some of the journal's published articles and assess their quality. Contact past authors to ask about their experience.
- Check that a journal's peer-review process is clearly described and try to confirm that a claimed impact factor is correct.
- Find out whether the journal is a member of an industry association that vets its members, such as the Directory of Open Access Journals or the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association.
- Use common sense, as you would when shopping online: if something looks fishy, proceed with caution.
- Predatory Publishing.pptx - Characteristics of Predatory Publishers
- Emails sent to prospective authors identified in an Internet search inviting them to submit a manuscript, or to join the journal’s board of editors
- Authors not clearly informed about a publication fee when submitting a manuscript and being notified about a fee only after the manuscript is accepted
- Articles published before payment terms were understood or completed
- Article published with out complete author approval
- An editorial process that created more problems than it solved, with errors introduced during proof-reading. Well known experts listed on the journal’s website as members of the editorial board even though they did not agree to serve on the board, and/or fake academics included on the editorial board
- Mimicking the name or website style of a more established journal
- Misleading claims about the publishing operations, such as false publisher’s location
- Open Access Journal Quality Indicators
- Increased visibility, usage, and impact of your research
- More efficient dissemination compared with traditional publishing models
- Retention of some or all of your copyrights
- Contribution to societal good by providing scholarly content to a global audience
- Rigor of traditional peer-review before publication
- Ongoing feedback through social media
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Stratford, Michael. 'Predatory' Online Journals Lure Scholars Who Are Eager to Publish." The Chronicle of Higher Education. March 4, 2012
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Tools to Verify Journal Status / Article Citations
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Tools to Verify OA Publishers' Membership
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Indexing Institutions / Browse by Indexing
The websites of OA journals with higher standards may list which institutions they use to index their articles. Common ones include:
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DOAJ
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EBSCO
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WorldCat
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Web of Science
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Scopus
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Compendex (EI)
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PubMed
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Inspec
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WILSON Database (Now transferred to EBSCO)
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XYZ University Libraries Catalog
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An established XYZ international index
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Fees and Licensing Information
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DOAJ - Find the "Publication Charges" section under each individual journal. If you are browsing by Subject, use the "Article
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Processing Charge" filter to show which journals will charge fees and which will not.
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DOAJ - On the main page of a journal, under its Publication Charges section, click on the "More" link which will reveal "Open
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Access Licensing" section with questions like "Does the author retain unrestricted copyright?"
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Publisher Copyright Policies / Self-Archiving
Open Policy Finder - Use this tool to find out publisher copyright policies and self-archiving. RoMEO colors:
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Green (can archive pre-print or publisher's version).
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Blue (can archive post-print or publisher's version).
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Yellow (can archive pre-print).
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White (archiving not formally supported).
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Open Access Publishing Books
Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)
