Predatory Publishers

Authors who wish to publish their work in an open-access academic journal often pay publication fees, known as article processing charges, to cover the costs of editorial processes, marketing, and quality control. With the rise of open-access publication models, unscrupulous journals have also entered the publication market. So-called “predatory journals” charge publication fees for editorial services that they either do not provide at all or provide at a substandard level. These unethical business practices not only harm the academic publishing landscape and Open Access, but also have consequences for the authors’ reputations.

When searching for a suitable journal for publication, it is worth paying closer attention, especially if the journals are not well-known and the following aspects are noted:

Correspondence

• Request for submission via email when contact information is unclear or there is no submission system
• Email correspondence with a generic salutation and automatically generated emails

Journal

• The title begins with “International,” “Global,” “World,” “American,” “European,” “Advanced Journal of…” and/or is very similar to a well-known journal
• The website and articles contain advertisements and have poor layout
• Misleading or nonexistent metrics: The ISSN (ISSN link: portal.issn.org) is not registered; the journal’s own impact factor, founding date, and number of issues are unknown
• No archiving of previously published issues
• The editorial board lacks expertise in the field, is not listed, or its members cannot be found or are listed with different affiliations.

 Publishing

• A fast publication process may indicate a lack of quality control and the absence of a peer review process.
• Missing licenses and usage agreements.
• Non-transparent publication costs

If in doubt, you should check whether the journal

• is listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
• is referenced in the relevant (Discipline-specific) data bases 
• the Publisher is a member of the "Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association" (OASPA) or the "Committee on Publication Ethics" (COPE)
• is being reported in Cabells Predatory Reports (only on the University of Basel's computer network)

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact openaccess@clutterunibas.ch