Library Guides. Scholarly Publishing and Open Access. Evaluating Journals & Publishers.

Use the link to access the complete Library Guide on Scholarly Publishing and Open Access from the Western Illinois University Libraries. The current section alerting authors to predatory publishers opens as follows: ‘The Chronicle of Higher Education published an article March 4, 2012 titled “‘Predatory’ Online Journals Lure Scholars Who Are Eager to Publish.’ It describes the hidden danger of open access publications. Many new publishers and journals have been developed during the past 5-10 years to take advantage of scholars who want to publish their work in open access journals. Some of these ‘predatory’ publishers have set up journals to earn money rather than advance scholarship... If you choose to publish in an open access journal, the following questions about the publishers and journals could be useful in selecting a journal: [1] Is the publisher on the list of Predatory Publishers? Jeffrey Beall, Metadata Librarian at the University of Colorado at Denver, has developed a list of “Predatory Publishers,” publishers that have questionable reputations. [2] Is the publisher's or journal's web site well-written or are there obvious grammatical and spelling errors? While some publishers give an address in the United States or Europe, the language used on the web site may not conform to proper English-language usage. For example, one publisher on Beall’s List of Predatory Publishers includes phrases such as “Instructions for the Authors.” [3] Look at the titles of the journals from a publisher: [3a] What are the subjects of the journal titles on the publisher’s web site? Some predatory publishers publish journals in one or more broad subject areas (e.g. Accounting & Marketing; Entomology, Ornithology & Herpetology). These journals have a broad scope to lure a larger number of potential authors. [3b] Does the publisher list titles in a single subject area or publish titles in many subject areas? Some open access publishers list titles in a wide range of disciplines. While established, for profit, publishers like Elsevier and Wiley also publish in numerous disciplines, they do so because they have acquired titles by making deals with scholarly societies or by merging with or acquiring other publishers. [4] What do you find when you search for information about the publisher on the Web? A search for some publisher names and the word complaint, fraud, scam, rip-off or similar terms sometimes yields blog postings or other complaints about the publisher. Some predatory open access publishers even have poor ratings from the Better Business Bureau! [5] Where is the journal indexed? Use Ulrichs Global Serials Directory to look for information about a journal. If Ulrichs says that a journal is indexed by a particular database, check the list of titles indexed by that database to ensure that the title is listed (information in Ulrichs is supplied by the publisher). If articles in a journal can only be found by using a search engine (e.g. Google Scholar), it may be difficult for other researchers to find your article. [6] Does the journal state that it is affiliated with a scholarly organization, society or university? Look up that organization or university to see if they actually exist. In particular, check the Scholarly Societies Project to see if the organization is listed in a given subject area and the stability of the organization’s web site. [7] Who is on the editorial board? Contact one of the editorial board members to ask about the journal and their experience and/or affiliation with it. According to the Chronicle article ‘In some cases, faculty members say they were named to editorial boards without their consent...’”