Open Access
Caution "predatory journal"!
About Predatory Journals
Appearing to be an open access journal with peer review, the predatory publisher aims to make profits from authors’ publication fees (Article Processing Charge: APC) while not providing a proper peer review process. Recently, it's increasing rapidly and needs attention.
Problems of Predatory Journals
- Decreased author's trust and evaluation: The author might be perceived as a “researcher with predatory publishing”.
- Risk of publication fee trouble: The authors might be charged for additional reasons after publication.
- The author might not be able to withdraw the publication, and thus cannot re-submit the work to other journals.
- The accessibility of the publication for a long term is not guaranteed.
Characteristics of predatory journals
- The journal website does not present an editorial board.
- Too short the peer review process: The journal gives unrealistic promises regarding the speed of the peer review process.
- The journal mimics another journal title or the website of said journal.
How to prevent predatory publishing?
Please refer to the whitelist of recognized open access journals.
| Whitelist | Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) | https://doaj.org OA journals that passed strict examination |
| Web of Science | https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/basic-search DB with recording standards | |
| Checklist | Think Check Submit | https://thinkchecksubmit.org https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4z0Nxq4Epc |
| Think Check Attend | https://thinkcheckattend.org Checklist for choosing a trusted conference |
* Journals that are not whitelisted are not necessarily the predatory journal.
See the Official Website
Try searching for the journal’s official website yourself and check the editor’s profile.
Reading previously published articles can also help you assess whether the journal maintains a high standard of quality.
Additionally, you can use SciRev(https://scirev.org/), a review site for peer review processes, to look up the average review time for each journal.
Ask Other Researchers
Ask senior colleagues or researchers in related fields about the reputation of the journal.
It’s also a good idea to check social media and other platforms to see if there are any concerns raised about the journal’s quality.
