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Predatory publishing (also write-only publishing or deceptive publishing) is an exploitative academic publishing business model that involves charging publication fees to authors without checking articles for quality and legitimacy, and without providing editorial and publishing services that legitimate academic journals provide, whether open access or not (Wikipedia, 2021).
You can find more information on choosing a journal at the University of Ottawa's Scholarly Communication website - Deceptive publishers.
If you are invited to submit to journals or conferences, or to become an editorial board member, critically evaluate the publisher's legitimacy:
Think. Check. Submit.
Think. Check. Submit. helps researchers identify trusted journals and publishers for their research. Through a range of tools and practical resources, this international, cross-sector initiative aims to educate researchers, promote integrity, and build trust in credible research and publications. You can check out this short video on the checklist.
World Association of Medical Editors (WAME)
WAME has created a document aims to provide guidance to help editors, researchers, funders, academic institutions and other stakeholders distinguish predatory journals from legitimate journals.
PREDATORY?
Primary goal: to make money
Reputation: questionable
Emails: flattering, persuasive, and repetitive
Databases: none of them included the title
Author is targeted by website, not the reader
Title: suggests a vague or broad scope
Open Access, but publisher retains copyright
Revision: not required, instant publication guaranteed
Yes, it’s predatory!