Library Orientation for Nursing

Predatory Publishing

Predatory open-access publishers are those that unprofessionally exploit the gold open-access model for their own profit. That is to say, they operate as scholarly vanity presses and publish articles in exchange for the author fee. They are characterized by various levels of deception and lack of transparency in their operations.

Source: Elliott, C. (2012, June 5). On predatory publishers: A Q&A with Jeffrey Beall [blog post]. Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/brainstorm/on-predatory-publishers-a-qa-with-jeffrey-beall/47667

Tips for Spotting a Predatory Journal

On November 3, 2017, NIH released a statement on article publication resulting from NIH funded research in order "to protect the credibility of published research, authors are encouraged to publish papers arising from NIH-funded research in reputable journals." The statement includes tips to help authors identify predatory journals.

1. Are the article processing charges not transparent?

2. If the journal is peer-reviewed, is the peer-reviewed process transparent? Can you visit the publisher's website and read about their peer review process? Are you able to access the author guidelines?

3. Is there information about who is/are the editor(s)? Is the information about the editorial board available and transparent?

4. Is the location of the publisher’s office available on their website?

5. Is the publishing process clear and transparent on the publisher's website?

6. Is the journal indexed in a database such as PubMed, CINAHL, etc.?

7. Is the publisher a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (https://publicationethics.org/)

   or the Open Access Scholarly Publishers’ Association (OASPA) (https://oaspa.org/)?

Glossary of Terms

Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) has more than 12,000 members worldwide from all academic fields. Membership is open to editors of academic journals and others interested in publication ethics.

Open Access Scholarly Publishers’ Association has a rigorous application review process for organizations wishing to join.  Applications are judged against a set of strict membership criteria by a Committee comprising several Board Members.