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Predatory Publishing

Disclaimer:

This guide is intended to provide information about predatory publishing. Deciding where to publish is the sole responsibility of an author. 

The content in this guide does not constitute legal advice and is not intended to replace the advice of legal counsel. 

What are Predatory Publishers?

Predatory publishers are businesses that solicit articles from students, faculty, and researchers who are under pressure to publish their research findings. They tend to prey on authors who need to fulfill tenure, grant, or graduation publishing requirements. These predatory publishers collect fees from authors without providing legitimate journals services such as peer-review.

They often pose as open access journals, since the open access publishing model covers costs by collecting fees from the authors (rather than by ad revenue or subscriptions). This, in turn, provides a large amount of opportunity for scam journals. Their ultimate goal is to make money, NOT to publish and foster scholarly research. 

What is this Guide for?

This guide is meant to serve as a quick and reliable predatory publishing reference for SHU faculty, staff, and students.

This guide will cover the following:

  • Red flag signs of predatory publishers 
  • Common characteristics of legitimate scholarly journals
  • Questions to ask oneself when faced with potentially predatory conferences
  • Effective tools that can be used to evaluate both journals and conferences to help avoid predatory organizations and businesses
  • General tips to help keep you and your work safe

 

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