Avoid Publishing Scams

The term “predatory publishing” describes opportunistic entities that exploit researchers by charging fees while providing little or none of their promised services and benefits. Predatory publishers claim to be legitimate open access publishers, but open access is not in itself an indicator that a journal is predatory. 

Some of the most common qualities of these publishers include:

• Making false claims about their services, quality, or identity. This could include false claims about peer review, metrics like the impact factor, inclusion in quality indexes, and editorial board members whose names are listed without their knowledge. Predatory publishers may also use journal names that are the same or slightly different from legitimate journals.
• Engaging in deceptive and unethical business practices. This could include the journal asking for additional, hidden fees after “accepting” an article for publication.
• Sending spam emails asking researchers to publish, attend a conference, or serve on an editorial board. These emails may appear legitimate, so all email invitations should be carefully assessed.

“Predatory journals and publishers are entities that prioritize self-interest at the expense of scholarship and are characterized by false or misleading information, deviation from best editorial and publication practices, a lack of transparency, and/or the use of aggressive and indiscriminate solicitation practices.” (Grudniewicz et al., 2019)

Publishing your article in a predatory journal can lead to many negative impacts, including:

• Receiving little to no attention for your research

• Receiving little to no valuable peer review or editorial input

• No long-term preservation of your research, which could disappear at any time

• Damages to your reputation or career

• Cobey, K. (2017, September 6). Illegitimate journals scam even senior scientists. Nature. Nature Publishing Group. https://doi.org/10.1038/549007a

• Moher, D. et al. (2017, September 6). Stop this waste of people, animals and money. Nature. Nature Publishing Group. https://doi.org/10.1038/549023a

• Shamseer, L. et al. (2017). Potential predatory and legitimate biomedical journals: Can you tell the difference? A cross-sectional comparison. BMC Medicine, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-017-0785-9

• Manda, A. et al. (2017). The surge of predatory open-access in neurosciences and neurology. Neuroscience, 353: 166-173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2017.04.014