Predatory publishing is a term that encompasses many unethical scholarly publishing practices.
A defining element of predatory publishers is that they intentionally deceive authors by charging fees for publishing services that are either not provided, are of a substandard quality, or inferior to what was agreed.
Legitimate publishers are expected to transparently meet industry standards in editorial oversight, peer review, copy editing and archiving of past publications.
Rather than relying on lists of recommended journal titles, it is recommended to take a holistic approach to assess and education users on the malicious and deceptive practices by some publishers. "Understanding the hallmarks of predatory publishers and knowing the risks of submitting to them is the best way to avoid being misled." Amsen, E. (2024). How to avoid being duped by predatory journals. Bmj, 384. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.q452
Cabell's Predatory Reports evaluates journal quality against criteria, screening for misleading metrics, irregular publication practices and assists you to avoid fraudulent journal titles. You can now access Cabell's Predatory Reports here.
To learn about using the database please watch this very short video.
Emails inviting you to submit an article or serve on an editorial board are often warning signs that require further investigation.
Journal title sounds very similar to a reputable publication and may use words such as
Website
Indexing and metrics
Peer review and Instruction
Clear policies - Ensure the titles has policies covering
Further information on assessing journal quality and journal metrics
COPE provide resources on ethical practices in publishing. Information on their website covers
There is an increasing prevalence of scams related to hijacked journals, where websites are created to fraudulently mimic an established journal. The sites, also referred to as ‘clone’, 'counterfeit' or ‘duplicate’ journals aim to entice authors to pay fees for publication in the fake journal.
Some tips to identify hijacked journals:
Journal hijackers can go to a lot of effort to appear legitimate, using names of editors of real journals without their knowledge and links and logos of genuine citation databases.
Some ways to check if the journal is legitimate are:
Vanity publishers may send unsolicited emails offering to publish your research. In particular, vanity publishers will target higher degree students or recent graduates offering to publish a thesis as a book. Many of these publishers provide very little or no editorial input or support and you will receive no marketing or distribution of your book after paying a large fee for their services.
Publishing with vanity presses may result in
Paper mill publishing provides opportunity for academics to create or produce papers for a authorship fee. Fraudulent paper mill articles are not always easy to identify and are regularly published in scholarly peer-reviewed journals.
Authors should be aware of paper mill activities and protect their own work.
If you suspect your work has been plagiarised or your name attached to work you did not complete, contact the journal/publisher for removal of the work. You may also seek advice from the ECU Research Integrity office
Recorded presentation "Cover to Cover: Profiling Predatory Publishing"
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