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Questionable OA Publishers, Predatory Publishing, Determining the Good from the Bad OA Journals

  • 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
  • Stratford, Michael.  'Predatory' Online Journals Lure Scholars Who Are Eager to Publish." The Chronicle of Higher Education. March 4, 2012

  • Tools to Verify Journal Status / Article Citations

  • Tools to Verify OA Publishers' Membership   

  • 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:

    • DOAJ

    • EBSCO  

    • WorldCat

    • Web of Science

    • Scopus

    • Compendex (EI)

    • PubMed

    • Inspec

    • WILSON Database (Now transferred to EBSCO)

    • XYZ University Libraries Catalog

    • An established XYZ international index

  • Fees and Licensing Information

    • ​​​​​​​DOAJ - Find the "Publication Charges" section under each individual journal. If you are browsing by Subject, use the "Article

    • Processing Charge" filter to show which journals will charge fees and which will not.

    • DOAJ - On the main page of a journal, under its Publication Charges section, click on the "More" link which will reveal "Open

    • Access Licensing" section with questions like "Does the author retain unrestricted copyright?"

  • Publisher Copyright Policies / Self-Archiving
    Open Policy Finder - Use this tool to find out publisher copyright policies and self-archiving. RoMEO colors:

    • Green (can archive pre-print or publisher's version).

    • Blue (can archive post-print or publisher's version).

    • Yellow (can archive pre-print).

    • White (archiving not formally supported).

  • Open Access Publishing Books
    Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)