Every year researchers lose money, and sometimes their best paper, to journals that only pretend to publish research properly. The damage goes beyond the fee: a paper in a doubtful journal may not count for your degree or promotion, it is hard to withdraw, and it can follow your name for years.
It helps to know the two main kinds of problem:
- Predatory journals are real journals, in the sense that they exist and publish, but they charge fees without providing genuine peer review or editorial care
- Hijacked journals go further. They copy the title, ISSN and look of a genuine, often indexed, journal on a fake website, and collect fees from authors who think they are submitting to the real one
A new journal, or a small one with a modest website, is not automatically predatory. What matters is whether it behaves like a real journal. Here are the signs to watch for.
10 warning signs
- An unsolicited email praising your work in general terms and inviting you to publish quickly
- Guaranteed acceptance, or publication "within 7 days"
- No real peer review: no reviewer comments at all, or comments so generic they could apply to any paper
- A web address that is slightly different from the journal's official site, such as an extra word, a hyphen or a different ending
- Indexing claims you cannot verify in Scopus Sources, the Web of Science Master Journal List or the database it names
- A very broad scope, such as "all subjects of science, engineering, management and humanities"
- An editorial board with names you cannot trace, or real academics who never agreed to serve
- Hidden or changing fees, revealed only after acceptance
- Payment to a personal account, or by unusual methods
- Poor-quality published articles, with spelling errors, broken links and papers far outside the journal's stated field
One sign on its own may have an innocent explanation. Two or three together are a strong reason to walk away.
Tools that help
- Scopus Sources and the Master Journal List, to confirm indexing by ISSN
- The ISSN Portal, to confirm that the ISSN is real and belongs to that title
- The Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker, to see whether a website is a known copy
- DOAJ (the Directory of Open Access Journals), for open-access journals that have passed its checks
- COPE (the Committee on Publication Ethics), whose member list you can search, if a journal claims membership
- The Think. Check. Submit. checklist, a simple, free guide to choosing a trusted journal
What to do before you submit
- Verify indexing in the database itself, searching by ISSN
- Reach the journal's website through the database or the publisher's official site
- Read a few recently published articles, and ask yourself whether you would be proud to appear beside them
- Ask colleagues and your supervisor whether they know and respect the journal
- Get every fee in writing before you submit
If you have already submitted or paid
Do not panic, and do not send more money. Ask the journal in writing to withdraw your paper and to confirm that it will not be published. Keep every email, invoice and payment record. If your bank or payment provider offers a dispute process, ask about it promptly.
If the paper has already appeared on a fake site, you may need a written withdrawal before another journal will consider it, because most journals will not accept work that has been published elsewhere. Be open with the new journal's editor about what happened; editors know this problem well.
How we protect our clients
At Shodh Sagar® we check every journal we recommend against the databases on the day, share the links with you, and never recommend a journal we cannot verify. We do not guarantee acceptance, because no honest service can: the decision belongs to the journal's editors and reviewers. That is part of our publication ethics.
If an offer you have received looks too good to be true, send it to us and we will tell you what we find, free of charge.
