Predatory and hijacked journals

Library recommendations: Lean Library and the WUR Journal Browser

The Library strongly advises installing the Lean Library browser extension. This tool provides seamless access to subscribed resources and includes a hijacked journal checker to alerting you when you access a cloned journal website. Additionally, always use the WUR Journal Browser tool to verify a journal's legitimacy before submitting your work.

Hijacked Journal Checker

The Library feeds the Retraction Watch Hijacked Journal Checker into the Lean Library browser extension. When you’ve installed Lean Library, a warning shows up when you access a hijacked journal’s website.

The Library aims to keep Lean Library up to date. Be aware that the ongoing cat-and-mouse game between malicious parties and Retraction Watch, means that the Hijacked Journal Checker will never be exhaustive.

WUR Journal Browser

In the WUR Journal Browser, you can find journals that meet basic quality requirements of scholarly periodicals. You can check whether your journal of choice has an impact factor, how many WUR articles the journal published, and how often the journal has been cited by your WUR colleagues. You'll also find the link to the legitimate journal's homepage. Finally, the WUR Journal Browser provides information on Open Access options and possible discounts on the APCs.
Disclaimer: WUR Library cannot be held accountable for unidentified predatory and hijacked journals or other predatory publishing practices. We recommend reading the Guide on Predatory and Questionable Publishing Practices for further tips.

What are predatory journals?

Predatory journals knowingly abuse the Open Access system. Legitimate open access publishers also charge APCs but use these to cover their publishing and archiving costs. Predatory publishers usually promise these same services but do not provide them once authors have paid the APCs. Note that Open Access journals are not by definition predatory. There are many credible Open Access journals and some even do not have APCs.

What are hijacked journals?

Hijacked journals are a form of predatory publishing where fraudsters clone the websites of legitimate, established scholarly journals. These illegal sites lure researchers into submitting their work and paying fees, all under the pretence of being associated with a reputable journal. The submitted work is unlikely to be peer-reviewed, to be published or to be recognized by the academic community, all of which has significant consequences for the researchers involved.

What does this mean for me as an author?

Publishing in predatory or hijacked journals can be harmful to you as an author because publications in these journals may not count for doctoral thesis requirements or for tenure-track goals. You should also be wary of predatory journals when using and citing sources, as the articles in predatory journals may not have been thoroughly peer reviewed.

Warning signs, tips and tricks

In addition to using the above mentioned library tools, you can independently verify a journal's credibility by checking its editorial board, peer review process, and indexing in reputable databases.

Verify information on the journal website

• Look at the editorial board: does it include experts from your field or other credible scientists? See if you can verify the contact information of the journal’s board members elsewhere, for instance, on their university webpage.
• Look for the journal’s editorial office address and see if you can verify it.
• If the publisher provides the Journal Impact Factor, try to verify it. You can find Journal Impact Factors on the Journal Citation Reports website.

Assess how the journal presents itself

• Look at the emails you have received from the publisher. It is not a good sign if they are unsolicited and poorly written, appear overly flattering (e.g., ‘you are a leading expert in your field’), or make contradictory claims. Assess the look and feel of the publisher’s website. Be wary if the journal website posts non-related or non-academic advertisements. Pay special attention to the website's layout. Websites of predatory publishers often mimic those of credible publishers.  
• See if the publisher clearly explains the peer review process, the publishing schedule, copyright agreements, and fees. Publishers should be transparent about these. Open access journals should never demand your article's copyright.

Look at the published materials

• Scan some of the articles that the journal has published and assess their quality. Is it the level you would expect in terms of content and language? Do the articles fit within the journal’s stated scope?
• Look at the time between the submission and acceptance of articles. Is this enough for peer review and revision?

Search for the journal in directories

• See if the publisher is listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). DOAJ is a list of credible open access journals. An alternative ‘whitelist’ of open access journals is Quality Open Access Market (QOAM).
• See if the publisher is on Beall’s List. This source lists over a thousand publishers considered ‘potential, possible, or probable predatory’ by academic librarian Jeffrey Beall. Note: as of January 2017, this list is no longer updated. It will lose its completeness and accuracy over time.
• See if the journal is indexed in a major bibliographic databases, like Scopus, Web of Science or PubMed. If a journal is indexed there, it is trustworthy.

Support

For any questions on hijacked journals or possible predatory journals, please contact WUR Open Access support.