{"id":38048,"date":"2025-10-27T09:59:46","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T14:59:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/?p=38048"},"modified":"2026-01-06T10:01:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T16:01:15","slug":"protect-yourself-and-your-research-from-predatory-journal-publishers-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/lottes-health-sciences-library\/protect-yourself-and-your-research-from-predatory-journal-publishers-3","title":{"rendered":"Protect Yourself and Your Research from Predatory Journal Publishers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Predatory publishing doesn\u2019t just take advantage of authors by misrepresenting review, editorial, and fee structures. It also hinders access to the work itself, hurting the overall enterprise of research. The epidemic of predatory journals reached serious enough heights in 2016 that the\u00a0Federal Trade Commission charged OMICS<\/a>, one such publisher of hundreds of predatory journals, for its deceptive practices.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,\u201d says\u00a0Janice Dysart<\/a>, Science Librarian and creator of the\u00a0Where to Publish Your Research<\/a>\u00a0guide. \u201cBe wary of these email solicitations from publishers trying to get you to submit articles to their journals.\u201d She recommends using the\u00a0Think Check Submit<\/a>\u00a0checklist to determine whether a publisher is legitimate.<\/p>\n

Anyone can fall victim to predatory journal publishers.\u00a0Jung Ha-Brookshire<\/a>, professor and department chair for the Department of Textile and Apparel Management, relates her experience after a graduate student recommended a journal a few years ago. She says, \u201cI didn\u2019t think twice about it. We submitted our paper and got accepted without any revisions. Then they were asking us to send money somewhere in Pakistan.\u201d She still didn\u2019t realize what was happening because she hadn\u2019t even heard of \u201cpredatory journals.\u201d<\/p>\n

That all changed about a year later when she learned of a list of predatory journals from her colleagues. \u201cWe found out that our journal was on that list,\u201d she says. They tried to withdraw their work from the publication but couldn\u2019t. Because the journal wasn\u2019t legitimate, the article could only be found via the specific URL and not by searching, so they pulled the publication information from their CVs. Jung says, \u201cWe had to take that manuscript as a loss because we couldn\u2019t even take that paper to other publishers since, technically, it is already published.\u201d<\/p>\n

After that experience, Jung now checks with her subject librarian,\u00a0Gwen Gray<\/a>, every time she encounters a journal she hasn\u2019t heard of, \u201cno matter how good the website looks.\u201d Jung advises, \u201cBe careful with choosing the right journals. Do not get fooled by address, location, a beautiful website, and a wonderful set of editorial board names. Check with your librarian first when in doubt!\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent news, a team of computer scientists led by a University of Colorado researcher is developing an AI tool for identifying predatory journals. This tool is not currently publicly accessible, but may be in the future.<\/p>\n

For more information on how to spot predatory journal publishers, see our\u00a0Where to Publish Your Research<\/a>\u00a0guide or contact your\u00a0subject librarian<\/a><\/div>\n
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Predatory publishing doesn\u2019t just take advantage of authors by misrepresenting review, editorial, and fee structures. It also hinders access to the work itself, hurting the overall enterprise of research. The epidemic of predatory journals reached serious enough heights in 2016 that the\u00a0Federal Trade Commission charged OMICS, one such publisher of hundreds of predatory journals, for …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":38052,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[456,496],"tags":[821,574,1012],"class_list":["post-38048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lottes-health-sciences-library","category-resources-and-services","tag-hslnewsletter","tag-newsletter","tag-scholarly-communication"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2025\/10\/Predatory-Journals-Gateway-6.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-10-27 10:00:49","action":"change-status","newStatus":"private","terms":[0],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38048"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38054,"href":"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38048\/revisions\/38054"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}