There is no single, straightforward method of identifying a predatory journal. The information on this guide is meant to serve as a helpful reference for researchers or librarians attempting to identify a suspicious journal. It is not meant to serve as legal advice. The final decision on where to publish is the responsibility of the researcher.

Predatory journals can have a broad range of different characteristics. Because of this, there is no standard or universal definition for a predatory journal; however, the term generally refers to journals that:

• Have no rigorous peer review, editorial, or preservation services
• Have no quality control in their selection process
• Exploit open access publication models for the sole purpose of financial gain

Image by Christel SAGNIEZ from Pixabay

Though every predatory journal is different, many predatory journals tend to share at least a few of the following characteristics. Note that there is no single, straightforward way to identify a predatory journal. Because of this, it's important to consider multiple characteristics when evaluating a journal.

Email: Emails sent by predatory journals tend to have

• Spelling and grammatical errors
• Email addresses that are unprofessional or unaffiliated with the journal's name (e.g. a gmail, yahoo, Hotmail, etc.)
• Language that targets authors (e.g., flattery, discounts for submission, etc.)
• Short deadline for response or submission of your manuscript.

Helpful Tip: Below is an example of an email from a suspicious journal:

Beware of the following clever tactics:

• Fake/tampered links to submission sites: Some senders will claim they are from a reputed journal, and link to a submission site that isn't the reputed journal's submission site. If you decide to submit an article to a journal, make sure to do so via the journal's website, and not via email links.
• Claiming to be following up when you have never received a past email from the journal: Senders may claim they are following up on an email you never received in your inbox. This is likely a tactic used to increase the urgency to submit your article to them.
• Claiming to be/speak for the editor in chief: Senders may claim to be or be speaking for the editor in chief of the journal. This is likely a tactic to increase the urgency to submit your article them.

For additional information on predatory journal emails, you can take a look at my commentary..

Website Integrity: Websites of predatory journals may have

• Grammatical and spelling errors
• Fuzzy images
• Designs that mimic the designs of reputed journals

Helpful Tip:Journal websites can sometimes be hijacked by predatory publishers. You can look up who owns a journal website on the Free Whois Domain Lookup tool and Retraction Watch's Hijacked Journal Checker. If you're using the Whois Domain Lookup tool, a few red flags would be journals that have existed for several years being registered recently (e.g., within the past year), the domain's country registration is different from the publisher's location, and/or the publisher's name and contact information are kept anonymous.Also beware of slightly modified URLs (e.g., https://www.nejm.org/ could be modified to the fake URL https://www.ne-jm.org/)

Editorial Board: Editorial board members may

• Be fake or information about them may be missing on the journal’s website
• Not mention the journal on their personal/institutional websites
• Have backgrounds that do not align with the scope of the journal.

Helpful Tip:When verifying information about editors, do not use the links provided by the journal website. Instead, look up the editors on their institutions' websites (e.g. you can Google "John Doe UW Madison" and see if they appear in the institution's directory).

Policies: The journal may have missing or unclear policies relating to:

• Peer review
• Retraction
• Plagiarism
• Copyright
• Editorial processes
• Ethics
• Preservation/archival processes

Journal Content: The journal may have

• A name that mimics the name of  a reputed journal
• An exceedingly wide scope
• An unconventional number of publications per year (e.g. too many or too few)
• Articles that are poor in quality or are difficult to find/access
• ISSN numbers that are missing or “pending”

Impact Metrics and Indexing: Predatory journals may have

• Information about impact factors that is fake, missing, or bogus (e.g. Global Impact Factor)
• Indexing that is fake, nonexistent, or bogus (e.g. Index Copernicus)

Helpful Tip: Never take a journal's word for their indexing status, as predatory journals will frequently lie about this. The following bullets give you instructions for verifying whether a journal is indexed in a specific database. A journal's inclusion in these databases indicates that the journal has been reviewed and has been deemed to be of acceptable quality.

• Medline: Click this link, and search for the journal by title in the search bar (e.g. currentlyindexed journal of the medical library association). Note: many predatory journals will claim they are indexed in PubMed. This is NOT the same as being indexed in Medline. A journal can have an article in PubMed, but still be a predatory journal.
• Web of Science: Click this link. Use the search bar to search for journals indexed in Web of Science.
• CINAHL: Click this link, then, on the top of the page, click "Publications."
• Scopus: Click this link, then, near the top of the page, click "Sources.":
• DOAJ: Click this link.
• Journal Citation Reports: Click this link.

Note that a journal's inclusion in one of these databases doesn't necessarily mean it isn't predatory. Predatory journals can sometimes find their way into reputed database indices, which is why it's important to look at multiple factors in addition to indexing.

Helpful Tip: Just like indexing, never take a journal's word for their impact metrics, as predatory journals will frequently lie about these. To verify a Journal Impact Factor (JIF), you can click this link for Journal Citation Reports and search for the journal. For resources for other types of journal impact metrics, see the Journal Impact Metrics section of the Impact Metrics guide.

Transparency and Workflow: Predatory journals may have

• Article processing charges (APCs) that are very low or are not mentioned on the journal's website
• Missing information relating to how funds are used
• Missing information relating to the journal's review or publication processes
• Promises of fast acceptance, review, and publication
• An informal submission process for manuscripts (e.g. submitting via email)

Publisher Information: Publishers of predatory publishers may

• Have fake locations or do not provide their addresses at all
• Be unknown to the scholarly community, and are unaffiliated or not supported by scholarly organizations, societies, or associations

Helpful Tip: To verify a publisher's location, try looking up their address on Google Street view.

You can also check to see if the publisher is a member of one of the following associations, which emphasize ethical publication standards:

• COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics)
• OASPA (Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association)
• WAME (World Association of Medical Editors): Note: This list indicates that at least one of the journal's editors is a part of WAME. It does not necessarily indicate the quality of a journal.

Special issues within legitimate journals can also be hijacked by predatory practices. Nature wrote an article highlighting the problem of fraudulent special issues. Below are some tips for identifying suspicious special issues.

When evaluating a special issue proposal:

• Follow the instructions in the previous box to determine if the journal promoting the special issue is authentic
• Retrieve the email of the person/people you are contacting for the special issue from their online profile instead of using the email address given in a special issue announcement.
• If you are paying open access fees, only do so via the publisher’s system, and not via instructions given by an email (exempting in cases where the email is sent directly from the publisher).

Note: Journals should not be charging compulsory fees for special issue articles.

Image by Fernando Arcos from Pixabay

There is a new hijacking scam that has targeted Elsevier, Springer Nature, and other major publishers. Hijacking scams operate by creating "clones" of legitimate journal websites to trick researchers. Before submitting an article to any journal, make sure to access the journal website directly, and double check the URL is correct. URLs of clone websites frequently have very minor changes to the URL (e.g., examplejournal.com vs examplejournals.com).

For additional information about the scam, see this article by Retraction Watch.

The following checklists can help you to identify a suspicious journal or conference. The unabridged checklist will be more extensive, while the abridged will just go over the general characteristics to out look for when evaluating a journal.

Click the links below to access/download the checklists.

• Unabridged Checklist
• Abridged Checklist