Quality Control

With the Open Access movement, new Open Access publishers and journals have emerged that enable free access to scientific publications. Unfortunately, among them are also so-called predatory publishers and predatory journals, whose business practices are more than questionable. They often draw attention to themselves through aggressive marketing.

They offer little to no editorial and publishing services in exchange for the publication fees (APCs, Article Processing Charges) that authors have to pay, These fees are incurred directly upon submission, unlike with reputable Open Access journals. A very short review period can be an indication of unscrupulous practices.

"Predatory Publishers" take advantage of the publication pressure that researchers face and pretend to adhere to good scientific practices, yet quality assurance mechanisms such as peer review are often inadequate. Moreover, it may be the case that disreputable journals feign legitimacy and scientific impact by using fabricated indicators and making false claims regarding indexing in databases. Additionally, "Predatory Journals" often resemble the appearance of well-known journals. In some instances, renowned researchers are listed as editors without their knowledge. In connection with artificial intelligence, there are currently cases where content is AI-generated and subsequently attributed to prominent researchers. Publishing in a "Predatory Journal" harms the reputation of the researcher, even if the publication is of high scientific quality.

You can use the following criteria to assess the seriousness of a magazine or publisher:

• The initiative Think. Check. Submit. has compiled a list of criteria that can be used as a guide when selecting a journal.
• The FAQ-section of the Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft zum Thema “predatory” publishing” on predatory publishing provide an overview of the phenomenon of predatory publishing, its scale and the media debate surrounding it.
• The handout from the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics also goes into detail about the various practices of dubious publishers.
• The Retraction Watch Blog offers articles and a database of retracted publications.

Many scientific actors support the goal of open access to scientific research results. Consequently, in recent years, many new open-access journals have been established in their respective communities, gained good reputations, and have significant impact factors. The following indicators are a good sign that the journal is a reputable open-access journal:

• Listed in the Directory of Open-Access Journals (DOAJ): : http://doaj.org/
• The publisher is a member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers  Association (OSAPA): http://oaspa.org/
• The publisher is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE): http://publicationethics.org/
• http://www.stm-assoc.org/The publisher is a member of the International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers (STM): www.stm-assoc.org

Further helpful criteria are:

• Have you or your colleagues heard of the journal? Have you read any articles in this journal in the past?
• Is the publishers name clearly stated on the journal’s website? Is it easily possible to contact the publisher (phone number, email, mail address)?
• Does the journal have an editorial board? Do you know members of the editorial board or have you heard of them as experts in their field of research? Do the members of the editorial board reference this work on their own website?
• Does the journal provide any details on the peer-review process?
• Is the ISSN correct? Existing ISSN can be found in the International Standard Serial Number International Center?
• Does the publisher provide information on the cost for different services and when such are invoiced?