Avoid predatory journals
Many have received direct inquiries from publishers offering to publish their articles. Unfortunately, there are a number of so-called predatory publishers, who are financed by charging the authors publication fees (APC) only to publish their articles in insignificant journals. Here is the recipe for how to avoid this.
Good advice for discovering predatory journals
- Ask your colleagues if they are familiar with the journal, check how long it has been published for and where it is indexed.
- Look up the journal’s title along with the term "predatory". Others often write about their experiences.
- Check whether the journal is approved on level 1 or 2 in DBH's channel registry (kanalregister.hkdir.no).
- Consult the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) (doaj.org) to see whether it is an Open Access Journal.
- Check whether the publisher is a member of Open Access Scholarly Publishers’ Association (OASPA) (oaspa.org).
- Also check if the journal states that it follows ethical guidelines such as the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (publicationethics.org).
- Cabells Predatory Reports (oria.no) is an overview of journals deemed as problematic or predatory.
Common warning signals
- The language on the website is poor and characterised by misspellings and clearly translated sentences. The website does not look professional.
- It is difficult to find contact information such as the address or the country of publication.
- Inadequate information about the journal’s editorial staff or names that you are not familiar with. Occasionally renown researchers' names are used against their will. In this case check the website of these researchers to see whether they state to be a member of the journal's editorial staff.
- The business model is based on publication fees (APC), but it is difficult to understand which prices apply.
- The professional evaluation process is unclear or poorly described. A hasty publication following submission may mean that the peer review is not performed.
If in doubt, contact your subject librarian (oslomet.no).