The growing popularity of the open access publishing model has given rise to many new journals and publishers that employ questionable practices and venues for publishing with the goal of profiting from scientific research. Many of these predatory journals accept almost any paper for publication with no or bogus peer review just to collect publication fees. Hence, they fall short of being the type of publication that serves as evidence of research work that is necessary to gain future research funding and academic advancement. Any research published in such journals may damage an author’s reputation and undermine years of genuine research. Hence, it is important for researchers to review target journals carefully before submitting their research to ensure they are not questionable. Here are some characteristics of predatory journals that may serve as warning flags that a journal is questionable;
1. Solicit articles for publication through spam email
These journals invite article submissions from faculty and PhD students, especially those who have just graduated and published their dissertations on ProQuest or other repositories that publish students’ work. Reputable journals do not send out spam emails or “call for papers” invitations/ announcements as they get plenty and plenty of submissions.
2. Are available ONLY online
Reputable journals have both print versions and online versions. If you find that a journal is available only online, especially a new journal, that is a pretty good red flag that it is a predatory journal.
3. Journals’ names are suspiciously similar to other reputable journals in the field
Many predatory journals have titles (and even publisher company names) that are intentionally similar to well respected journals or publishers.
4. Misleading geographic information in the title
The title suggests that the journal is based in the United States or England, but closer scrutiny reveals that the publisher is actually based in other countries. For instance, their contact information and address provided on the website is in India or China.
5. Unprofessional websites
Predatory publishers establish what appears to be a legitimate online presence with webpages for bogus journals. However, there are some red flags you may check to determine if a journal is legitimate;
- The website contains typos or misspelled words and bad grammar.
- Use flattery to convince you to submit your article, e.g. promising expedited peer review to get your article published quicker.
- Advertisements on the journal website; appear to be trying to raise revenues by soliciting submissions or marketing.
- The website lacks or has insufficient “about” information
- Insufficient contact information- usually does not provide full contact information including a physical address and phone numbers (only a web contact form and email address). Others provide fake addresses or lead to another country.
- Email address is non-professional, usually a Gmail.com or yahoo.com account
- Lack of editors or editorial board. These journals usually do not list the members of the editorial board on their websites.
- Members of the editorial board with no or fake academic credentials & contacts, fake names used to populate the editorial board, or genuine editors are included without their knowledge.
- Unclear fee structures, fees cannot easily be located on the journal’s website, or fees are not comparable to other reputable open access journals- too low (<$300) or too high
- In most cases, manuscripts are submitted by email instead of an online-based submission system.
- Bogus impact factors advertised on the website- Journal boasts of questionable and misleading impact factors. Use Web of Science Journal Citation Reports to verify this claimed impact factor.
- False indexing claims on the website- Journal is not indexed in any well-known journal databases but presents a long list of indexes. You can use Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory (Urichsweb) to identify where a journal is actually indexed.
- Published articles provided on the website are plagiarized from mainstream journals or are completely fake- usually, numerous articles that are published by the same author(s).