Predatory Journals: How to Identify Them and What to Check Before You Submit

The short answer: predatory journals collect article processing charges without providing genuine peer review or editorial oversight. They accept almost anything for a fee and often fabricate metrics, editorial boards, and indexing claims. Publishing in one can permanently damage your research reputation. This guide covers the ten red flags to check before you submit anywhere.

What makes a journal predatory

The term predatory journal was coined in the early 2010s to describe journals that exploit the open access publishing model: charging authors to publish without delivering the editorial services they advertise. The defining characteristic is not the fee. Many excellent journals charge APCs. The characteristic is the absence of genuine peer review combined with deceptive practices to lure researchers into paying.

Predatory publishers typically operate as businesses that prioritize fee collection over research quality. A submitted manuscript may receive acceptance within 24 to 72 hours with minimal or no reviewer feedback. There is no genuine editorial check on methodology, data integrity, or scientific validity. The paper is published, the fee is collected, and the journal moves on.

The damage to authors is real. Papers in predatory journals are not indexed in Scopus or Web of Science. They do not count toward academic promotion criteria at most institutions. They cannot typically be retracted and republished elsewhere. And if a future employer, grant panel, or journal reviewer notices the predatory publication on a CV, it raises questions about the researcher's judgment.

Ten red flags to check

1. An unsolicited email invitation to submit. Most researchers receive these. They come in bulk from automated systems and are personalized with your name and paper title scraped from academic databases. Legitimate journals do not solicit manuscripts by mass email. Receiving one does not mean the journal is predatory, but it is a warning sign that warrants further checking.

2. Unrealistically fast peer review claims. Any journal advertising peer review completion in under two weeks for standard research articles is either lying about reviewing manuscripts or conducting a perfunctory check with no real evaluation. Genuine peer review for a research article takes three to eight weeks at minimum, often longer.

3. No Scopus or Web of Science indexing. This is the most reliable check. Search for the journal at sources.scopus.com or the Master Journal List at mjl.clarivate.com. If the journal is not listed, its papers will not appear in standard academic search systems and will not be visible to the research community. Many predatory journals claim to be "in the process of being indexed" or display unofficial indexing logos that look like Scopus or WoS branding.

4. Fabricated or suspicious impact metrics. Some predatory publishers display made-up "Impact Factors" from sources that are not the Journal Citation Reports. Terms like "Global Impact Factor," "Universal Impact Factor," or "SJIF" are not legitimate substitutes. The only recognized Impact Factor is published by Clarivate in the Journal Citation Reports. Similarly, a CiteScore can only be verified in Scopus Sources, not on the journal's own website.

5. An editorial board of fabricated or non-consenting researchers. Search the names of two or three listed editorial board members. Do they have verifiable academic profiles (university pages, ORCID, Google Scholar)? Have you found any cases where researchers have publicly complained about being listed on a journal's board without consent? This happens regularly with predatory publishers.

6. Scope that covers everything. A journal that claims to cover "all aspects of science, medicine, engineering, and humanities" is designed to accept anything. Legitimate journals have a defined scope that determines what they accept. Extremely broad scope is a predatory publisher strategy to maximize the pool of paying authors.

7. A website with errors, copied content, or suspicious contact information. Predatory journals often have websites with grammatical errors in their aim and scope, contact addresses that trace to residential areas or anonymous mailboxes, and "About" pages that copy language from legitimate publishers. A Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail editorial contact is a strong red flag for a journal claiming international academic standing.

8. APC disclosed only after acceptance. Legitimate open access journals disclose their APC on the journal website before submission. Predatory publishers sometimes withhold fee information until after the paper is accepted, putting authors in a position where they feel committed to paying. Any journal that does not show its APC publicly before submission should be avoided.

9. ISSN that does not match the official record. Every legitimate journal has an ISSN registered with the ISSN International Centre. Search the journal's ISSN at portal.issn.org. If the ISSN does not exist, or if the record shows a different journal title or publisher, something is wrong. Some predatory publishers use ISSNs obtained for a different journal, or simply fabricate numbers.

10. Copyright that transfers entirely to the publisher without author rights. Legitimate publishers either allow authors to retain copyright (open access) or specify clearly what rights authors retain under the agreement. Predatory publishers often bury terms that transfer all rights to the publisher with no author recourse. Read the author agreement before submitting.

How to verify a journal quickly

The fastest three-step verification: check Scopus Sources, check the Master Journal List, and search the journal name plus "predatory" or "fake" to see if other researchers have flagged it. This takes under five minutes and catches most problem journals.

For open access journals specifically, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a curated list of legitimate open access journals that meet editorial standards. A journal listed in DOAJ is not a guarantee of high quality, but it means the journal has passed basic editorial transparency checks.

The Think.Check.Submit initiative (thinkchecksubmit.org) maintains a practical checklist of questions to ask about any journal before submitting. It is free and designed specifically for researchers in any field.

The journal finder tool on this site only shows journals currently indexed in Scopus or Web of Science, which removes the predatory journal problem entirely for the results you see. If a journal appears in the tool's output, it passed the indexing check. Use the tool to find a shortlist of legitimate journals for your field, then apply the criteria above to narrow your choice further. See also how to find a Scopus indexed journal for a step-by-step walkthrough of the Scopus Sources search.

What to do if you receive a suspicious invitation

Do not reply. Mark it as spam if it keeps coming. If the journal name is new to you, run the three-step verification above before deciding anything. If it fails any of the ten checks, ignore the invitation.

If you are unsure whether a journal is legitimate, ask a senior researcher or librarian who works with academic databases. Most university libraries have research support staff who can verify journal status quickly using institutional access to Scopus and Web of Science tools.

A note on newly launched journals

Not every unindexed journal is predatory. Legitimate new journals take two to three years to qualify for Scopus or Web of Science indexing, as both databases require a minimum publishing history before evaluation. A new journal from a known publisher with a genuine editorial board and transparent peer review process may be worth watching even if it is not yet indexed.

The practical advice for most researchers: submit to indexed journals unless you have a specific reason to consider a new journal from a publisher whose track record you can verify independently. Career assessments, grant applications, and international collaboration opportunities are much easier when your publication record consists of indexed journals.

Once you have a list of verified legitimate journals in your field, the guide on how to choose the right journal for your paper covers how to narrow down based on scope, audience, acceptance rate, turnaround time, and APC to find the best fit for your specific manuscript.