Advisory On Predatory Publishing

The advisory comments provided below are intended to help faculty to guard against the risks of publishing with “so-called” predatory publishers, including having to pay open-access fee charges for articles appearing in journals of ill repute.

Some background on the dangers of predatory publishing may be found in the article below, "Investigating Journals: The Dark Side of Publishing", from Nature: International Weekly Journal of Science:

In this article, Declan Butler provides some guidance, quoted verbatim below, on identifying reputable publishers and on doing one's due diligence:

• 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.