What are predatory publishers, and how does an author
navigate the complex publishing landscape to try to assess an unknown or new
publisher?
Predatory publishers are journals that exist solely for
profit. These publishers charge authors
fees that significantly surpass the actual cost of running the journal and do
not provide the thorough peer-review that they advertise, or in many cases,
they do not provide peer-review at all.
 |
From "Potential, possible or probable predatory scholarly
open-access journals" list: number of predatory publishers 2011-2016
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Some common red flags that may indicate a predatory
publisher include:
·
Publishers that contact you directly about
submitting to their journal (usually rather aggressively)
·
Publishers that are unclear about the fee
·
Publishers that have email addresses from Gmail,
Yahoo, or any other non-corporate email
·
Publishers that have no academic ties
·
Improper use of ISSNs (International Standard
Serial Number)
·
Publisher’s address does not match the
geographic place names in the title of the journal or the name of the publisher
There have been “blacklists” created in recent years in
order to inform the public about which publishers are thought to be
predatory. The most renowned of these is
Beall’s List of Predatory
Publishers which has been complied and updated every year since 2008.
There are also “whitelists” of journals that have met
certain specified standards and are therefore viewed as reputable. A prime example of this is the Directory of Open Access Journals.
In contrast, whitelisted journals:
·
Must be chiefly scholarly
·
Make content immediately available
·
Have an editor, editorial board, and peer review
to ensure quality control
·
Are transparent about article processing charges
·
Have a registered ISSN
These lists are not comprehensive and not necessarily
always correct, but they are a great jumping off point when assessing the merit
of a journal. Remember it is important
to also conduct some research yourself.
Don’t submit your work to a publication without first investigating the
publisher and their practices.
We at the Schwerdtfeger
Library are, as always, happy to help if you require any assistance in assessing
the quality of the journals you are interested in submitting to.
To read more about predatory publishers, visit: