Library services for researchers - Strategic publishing

• Your research may be compromised due to inadequate or nonexistent peer-review processes.
• Your reputation as a researcher can be damaged by having a predatory publisher present in your publication list.
• Loss of copyright ownership as this may be retained by the predatory publisher.
• The publisher’s website may disappear and with it your research.
• Research outputs may not be indexed in databases for your discipline or the main citation databases like Scopus and Web of Science.
• If a predatory publisher is removed from a database, you will lose citation metrics.
• Even if you manage to have a research output retracted by a predatory publisher, you may not be able to republish it in other journals. Always contact the second publisher so that they are aware of the situation prior to re-submitting your research.
• You may be requested to pay hidden/extortionate fees or fees to withdraw your article.
• Intentional or deliberate publishing with predatory publishers may constitute a potential breach of research integrity. It’s important to use the tools provided to complete your due diligence and make responsible publishing choices.
• Engaging with predatory publishers could compromise your cyber security e.g. identity theft, access to sensitive data. Further information on protecting research can be found on the Cyber safety at UOW webpage.

It is essential as a responsible researcher that you undertake your due diligence in selecting a trusted publisher. Some of the red flags to assist you identify predatory publishing include:

• You receive an unsolicited email requesting you to submit an article, book chapter, or conference presentation. Rutgers University Library has a list of common features of emails from predatory publishers.
• Quick peer-review processes and publication timelines.
• Unclear and/or excessive fees in comparison to other open access journals.
• The journal’s name is very similar to prominent journals in the field.
• The journal has a very broad and unclear scope, possibly covering multiple disciplines.
• Incomplete publisher ownership and contact information.
• False or misleading metrics, indexing or bibliographic information.

The following tools are useful to help you make informed decisions about where you publish your research:

• Think.Check.Submit provides checklists for journals, books/chapters or conferences to help you assess if a publisher/conference is suitable for your research.
• Cabells Journalytics Academic contains a list of trusted scholarly journals in your discipline. The Predatory Reports show journals identified as potentially predatory, based on Cabells criteria, however, this list is not comprehensive and should be complemented with other tools.
• Compass to publish from the University of Liège allows you to follow an analytical process to determine the authenticity of open access journals.
• A Google search using the journal title along with the term "predatory" may reveal any news stories about the journal and its predatory practices.
• Check the journal quality for signs of downward trends, e.g. yearly journal citation trend going down in Journal Citation Reports (WoS).
• Talk to your peers and/or supervisor about any experiences they may have had with a particular journal.

UOW’s Predatory Publishing and Conferences Guidelines highlights the following as indicators of quality publications:

• Output is indexed in Scopus and/or Web of Science (WoS).
• The journal should not appear in Cabells Predatory Reports.
• Editorial board members are well known and respected in the discipline and recent papers published are of high quality.
• Open access journals are a member of the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) or the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA).
• A rigorous peer review process is followed by the publisher, before publication.
• The journal or other outlet is associated with a professional association.
• The journal appears on discipline specific journal rankings, such as that produced by the Australian Business Deans Council.

After submission you realise the journal is predatory. Consider these actions:

• Don’t pay the APC.
• Don’t sign the copyright.
• Email to withdraw/retract the article.
• Don’t pay a retraction fee. Persistently ask for a retraction.
• Keep a record of all requests.
• Report to the UOW Research Integrity Development and Ethics Office (email).
• Further advice can be obtained from Library Academic Services.

Your work is published without permission by a predatory publisher, or you are falsely attributed as an author to a published work. Consider these actions:

• Email publisher to withdraw the article/chapter/book.
• Email publisher to withdraw the author (or editor) profile from the publisher's website.
• Report all cases to UOW Research Integrity Development and Ethics Office (email) providing a copy of all requests to withdraw. This should also be the case if you do not receive a response, or are unable to resolve the issue.
• Further advice can be obtained from Library Academic Services.