“Predatory publishers” promise to publish academic articles for a fee. However, these publishers may not conduct adequate or any peer review and may request bank account or other personal information. Additionally, some of these publishers may be working to acquire unpublished research for the benefit of a foreign adversary. Some of these publishers request that faculty become members of their ‘editorial board’ but do not require the faculty to review or look at any of the articles submitted for publication. These publishers can damage the reputation of those who choose to publish with them or who are convinced to let their names be associated with the publisher.
Points to Watch For
- Must you pay to get published? This is different than paying for expedited peer review.
- Will they pay for you to be on an editorial board? If so, it may be a predatory publisher.
What to Do When You Receive a Soliciation to Publish
Peer-Review
Is the journal a peer-reviewed journal? What is the turnaround time on the peer-review?
Peer-review is a significant part of the scholarly communication process in academia. It is expected that academic articles will undergo the peer-review process.
Predatory Publisher clue: a turn-around process of only a few days or weeks.
Copyright
Does the publisher expect you to sign away part or all of your copyright?
Always read the contract you're about to sign. Signing copyright over to the publisher often tends to be the norm with subscription-based journals. Conversely, allowing the author to retain their copyright tends to be the norm with open access journals. An open access journal that insists authors sign over their copyright should be investigated.
Publication Fees
What fees will you be charged upon acceptance of your article? Will you be subject to page fees?
Another publishing model is the "author pays" model, which flips publication fees on the author to allow free and open access to the articles. These fees range from less than $100 to $3,000. Many open access journals have excellent reputations and operate under this business model.
Predatory publishers have been known to take advantage of this model. The presence of a publication fee alone shouldn't be enough to cause concern but combined with other factors it could serve as a red flag.
Publisher Reputation
How does the academic world perceive this particular publisher? Are they or their journal listed on a predatory publisher list? Are there criteria for determining if a publisher or journal is predatory?
Predatory publishers exist in both subscription-based and open access journals but are more prevalent in online open access venues.
A good starting point to determine if a journal or publisher is predatory is Beall's List of Predatory Publishers, a compiled list of over 900 publishers that follow predatory practices. Additional lists include ‘Hijacked Journals’, ‘Predatory Standalone Journals’, ‘Misleading Metrics Companies’ and ‘Predatory Publishers’. This data is maintained and updated frequently by a librarian at Auraria Library, University of Colorado Denver, who has been an academic librarian for over 24 years, has published extensively in the areas of metadata, full-text searching, and information retrieval.
Additional information on Promoting Integrity in Research Publication is Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Another option is to consult journal ranking lists, such as the Journal Ranking List from Professor Anne-Wil Harzing.