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Selecting a Journal for Publication

This guide provides some recommendations and criteria for selecting a journal for publication; introduces with Open Access and Predatory Publishing.

Predatory as a Model

With the Open Access movement, predatory publishers activated their services. Predatory is an exploitative academic publishing business model that involves charging publication fees to authors without peer-reviewing articles for quality and legitimacy, and without editorial and publishing services that legitimate academic journals provide, whether open access or not.

Consequences of publishing in predatory journals

  • Scholarly work might not be published at all
  • articles are invisible to bibliometric databases such as Scopus or Web of Science
  • articles become inaccessible
  • authors lose copyright
  • damaged reputation of the researcher and affiliated organization. 

Predatory Profile

Predatory Journals

Fake or Hijack Journal

Can be an existing open access journal and indexed in DOAJ

Can be indexed in Abstract Databases (e.g. Web of Science, Scopus)

The journal doesn't exist and not indexed in DOAJ, Web of Science, Scopus
 

Clone of an existing journal (hijack)

Examples. Wulfenia original journal is a print-only peer-reviewed scientific journal of botany. Wulfenia clone journals is a multidisciplinary open-access journal) 

American Hystorical Journal (original is American Historical Journal). The journal has a similar name to the famous journal on this subject, sometimes differing in prepositions OF or FOR
Fake metrics (Global Impact Factor, International Impact Factor, General Impact Factor, Cosmos Impact Factor, Directory of Indexing and Impact Factor, IMPACT-FACTOR.RU, International Journal Impact Factor)
Payment for publishing is required. The cost is hidden
No or fake review procedure / Fast Peer-Review
Fast publication
Poor quality

Aggressive Invitation

  • Invitation / Suspicious mailing
  • The publisher keeps spamming or has intrusive marketing

Examples Fake Journals

Fake Metrics in Fake Journal Website

Fake Journal Website

Clone of an existing journal

Fake Journals created by a group from Ghaziabad, India

Fake Journals Addresses

Fake/Predatory Metrics

Invitation/Suspicious mailing

Checklist to Avoid Predatory Publishing

  1. Availability of website, the owner. Check via http://whois.com/
  2. Can you find information about a publisher? Google it
  3. Check editorial board
  • The editorial board is not specified / One editorial board for different journals / Small geography
  • Are the places of work and positions indicated? Do you know the names of these people? Can you find information about them?
  • It is impossible to see the location of the editorial board
  1. Does a publisher keeps on sending spam or you notice an intrusive marketing?
  2. Can you find guidelines for authors?
  • Formatting guidelines for authors: most predatory journals do not have specific guidelines, including citation formats
  1. Can you find information on the copyright and peer-review process? 
  2. Author's fee are publicly available
  3. Does a journal have an ISSN (International Standard Serial Number)? Check ISSN in ROAD*
  4. Can you see a physical address? Check via Google Maps
  5. Is a journal indexed in DOAJ, Scopus, or Web of Science?
  6. Website design, presence of pop-up and blinking elements, grammatical errors

  7. Does the publisher have a membership in

You published article in predatory journal

If you discover or suspect that the journal to which you have submitted an article is predatory or has signs of unfair publishing practices, you take the next steps to help protect your own reputation and contribute to the ongoing effort to combat predatory publishing:

  • Send a withdrawal letter to the publisher, indicate legal action if needed
  • Do not pay any fees
  • Inform co-authors and collaborators if any
  • Report the journal and appeal to Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
  • Exclude your works in predatory publications from your CV and research profiles.

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