MHIKNET: Perils of Predatory Journals

What are Predatory Publishers?

“Predatory” publishers and journals are those that mimic academic journals, but don’t have the editorial, review, and publishing services associated with legitimate journals. At times it can be difficult to distinguish between predatory and legitimate publishers and journals, so readers should always think critically about information sources. While no given number of these criteria in any combination will guarantee a journal as being predatory or not, the more “poor” criteria a journal meets, the more likely it is to be predatory in nature.

If you are preparing to submit an article for publication, use tools like Think, Check, Submit, to ensure you are submitting to a trusted and reputable journal.

Criteria	Good	Fair	Poor
Google Search	In top 5 search results	On the first page Not in the top 5	Not on the first page At least one scam alert
Journal Name	Cannot be confused with another journal	Similar to another journal title	Unable to distinguish between this and another journal
Editorial Board	Full names and institutions	Full names only	No editorial board listed
Review Process	States if it is peer-reviewed or edited Has review policy listed	States if it is peer-reviewed or edited Has no review policy listed	Does not state if it is peer reviewed Promises rapid peer review
Conflicts of Interest	Clearly describes conflict of interest policy	States it has a conflict of interest policy, but does not describe it	Journal does not have a conflict of interest policy
Website	Competently designed and functional	Adequately designed, passably functional	Poorly designed, not functional Distorted images
Revenue Source	Clearly stated business model Revenue sources (author fees, subscriptions, advertising) are clearly outlined	Business model lacks clarity Revenue sources are unclear	Business model is not stated Revenue sources unclear Revenue is exclusively from author fees
Archive	Journal website contains an archive of past articles with full-text links	Journal website contains an archive of past issues, but it is incomplete	Journal site lacks archive Archive exists but doesn’t work
Publishing Schedule	States how often it publishes Archive concurs with this	Does not state schedule Can be determined from archive	Does not state schedule Schedule cannot be determined from archive
Author Fees	Cost clearly stated	Fees noted, but cost unclear	Does not state if fees exist
Copyright	Copyright policed stated		Copyright policy not stated
Indexing	Indexed in multiple databases	Indexed in one database	Not indexed in any database
Number of Articles	More than 10 articles published	Between 6 and 10 articles published	5 or fewer articles