Coined by librarian Jeffrey Beall, the term "predatory publishing" refers to the questionable, and often exploitable, practice of charging authors for publication fees without providing the editing and peer-review services that legitimate scholarly journals provide.
Below are some salient characteristics of potential predatory journals:
- The scope of interest includes non-biomedical subjects alongside biomedical topics
- The website contains spelling and grammar errors
- Images are distorted/fuzzy, intended to look like something they are not, or which are unauthorized
- The homepage language targets authors
- The Index Copernicus Value is promoted on the website
- Description of the manuscript handling process is lacking
- Manuscripts are requested to be submitted via email
- Rapid publication is promised
- There is no retraction policy
- Information on whether and how journal content will be digitally preserved is absent
- The Article processing/publication charge is very low (e.g., < $150 USD)
- Journals claiming to be open access either retain copyright of published research or fail to mention copyright
- The contact email address is non-professional and non-journal affiliated (e.g., @gmail.com or @yahoo.com)
Published online in BMC Med at https://dx.doi.org/10.1186%2Fs12916-017-0785-9.
