Rowland Medical Library Spotlight: How to identify a predatory journal
A predatory journal is a publication that prioritizes profit over scholarly quality and lacks legitimate peer review and editorial oversight. These journals often share inaccurate information, ignore publishing standards and obscure key details such as fees. Predatory publishers commonly use aggressive email invitations to solicit submissions and promise quick publication timelines. Publishing in a predatory journal poses several risks to authors including financial loss, damage to professional reputation, copyright concerns, and limited visibility of work.
Careful journal evaluation can help authors avoid these risks and protect their scholarship. However, identifying a predatory journal can be difficult because predatory journals can mimic legitimate ones. For example, predatory publishers exploit the author-pay model used by reputable Open Access journals to disseminate high-quality research. Here are some suggested strategies:
Review the journal’s website. Reputable journals clearly describe their peer review process, editorial board, and publication fees. Look for verifiable editorial board members and complete contact information; vague or missing details are red flags. Poor grammar, broken links, unprofessional design, or missing ISSN also raise concerns about the journal’s legitimacy.
Determine which databases index the journal. Major research databases like MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science select journals through rigorous review processes. Inclusion in a respected research database offers an added layer of quality assurance.
Consider the journal’s impact factor. A journal’s impact factor measures how often the average article in a journal has been cited in a particular year or time period. This metric offers an indicator of research influence in a particular subject field. The higher the journal impact factor, the more frequently articles from that journal are being cited by other publications. Impact factors should be viewed in the context of their subject since publishing patterns vary among academic disciplines, so what might be considered a high journal impact factor in one field may be low in another. Further, predatory journals may embellish journal metrics, so it is recommended to find impact factors directly through a vetted resource. Through Rowland Medical Library, Journal Citation Reports can be used to confirm impact factors and generate a list of highest impact factor journals in a particular subject.
Please contact Sarah Adcock with any questions about evaluating journal titles or any Rowland Medical Library resource.
Tomlinson OW. Predatory publishing in medical education: a rapid scoping review. BMC medical education. 2024;24(1):33. doi:10.1186/s12909-024-05024-x