In addition to looking at the scope of content and type of articles accepted by a journal, there are many things to check when selecting a journal to submit articles to:
- Does the journal have a peer-review process? If so, what kind of peer-review process? Some journals are changing their review processes to address historic inequities.
- Are there any fees associated with publishing? Authors who want to publish in an open-access journal might encounter unexpectedly large fees.
- Who is the governing body of the journal? Is it the official publication of a professional or scholarly association?
- Is it easy to find contact information for the journal's editorial team?
- What copyrights will be retained by the author and which will be transferred to the journal?
- Does the journal have a process for addressing and, if necessary, retracting articles found to contain fraudulent or plagiarized material?
- Does the journal have a clear policy on conflicts of interest?
- Does the journal have easy-to-find information about how they earn revenue and handle advertising?
Predatory Journals
As digital publishing has gotten easier and website hosting cheaper, academia has seen an explosive rise in the number of predatory journals. Publishing in a predatory journal can cause problems during the tenure process or lead to a tarnished academic reputation.
Many of the criteria above are based on the actions of predatory journals. A reputable journal will be upfront about their policies and who is responsible for the content. They will have robust review processes to reduce the risk of publishing flawed, fabricated, or plagiarized articles. A predatory journal often:
- Obscures information about who edits and publishes the journal.
- Inform authors of fees only after an article has been accepted for publication.
- Publish low-quality, plagiarized, fraudulent, or fabricated articles on faulty or poorly maintained websites.
- Predatory journals might withhold information about their article review process or not have any review process at all.
- Fake their impact factors and scholarly credentials, including their board of editors.
- Some predatory journals may list real academics on their boards of editors without seeking permission.
- Have titles that sound similar to reputable journals to fool readers and scholars.
- Spam academics with requests to submit articles or serve on their board of editors, often without bothering to check the recipient's discipline or field.
- Enable the publication of articles in other predatory journals, i.e. plagiarize legitimate articles by reproducing them.
- Fake or omit legitimate identifiers like ISSNs and DOIs.
