LibGuides: Author Tips for HKUST Scholars: Avoid Predatory Publishers

Unsolicited Paper Invitations

Unsolicited Paper Invitations - Beware!

Predatory publishers often publish open access articles for a fee without providing a rigorous peer review and editorial service.

Authors should beware of predatory publishers or disreputable publishers that often send unsolicited invitations to researchers offering to publish their work. Publishing with predatory publishers will leave a poor record on your CV which could permanently damage your academic reputation.

❗ Warning Signs from Paper Invitations

Check out this sample invitation letter and then move to Page 2 to see some common tricks predatory journals use. (The email is completely fictional.)

Decoding a paper invitation letter from a potential predatory journal (CC BY-NC 4.0)

❗ Warning Signs from Publisher Websites

Very broad and vague journal scope
Fake Impact Factors, e.g.
Suspicious indexing, e.g.
- ISI Indexing (International Scientific Indexing)
- ESJI (Eurasian Scientific Journal Index)
- SIS (Scientific Indexing Service)
- SAJI (Scholar Article Journal Index)
Unclear information about
- editorial process (peer review)
- publishing fees
- copyright policy
- editors and Editorial Board members
- location of editorial office
Recent publications are mainly from one particular region
Too many ads
Poor layout, grammatical errors on the website and in the publications

Tools to Identify Predatory Publishers

Tools to Avoid Predatory Publishers – A Cheat Sheet

This cheat sheet covers the tools and credible sources to help you decide whether a journal, conference or publisher is “predatory”.

Tools to Avoid Predatory Journals, Conferences & Publishers – Cheat Sheet

Watch this short video to learn how Think. Check. Submit. can help you:

More Resources from Other Libraries

Predatory Publishers and Conferences – from University College Dublin Library
Predatory Publishers – from the University of Saskatchewan Library