Article Figures & Data
Tables
Provide free, worldwide access to all content immediately upon publication.
Require no author fees, article preparation, or publication charges.
Provide authors professional peer review and editorial services to help improve the presentation and dissemination of their scholarly work.
Provide readers and the field quality control on the selection of material published.
Index articles in MEDLINE, PubMed, and other major databases.
Commit to transparent processes for submission, review, editorial decisions, and publication.
Follow established principles of publication ethics.
Require authors to follow principles of ethical research.
Protect all published material with copyright.
Permanently archive research reports for access and retrieval.
↵* Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, Family Medicine, and Annals of Family Medicine.
No peer review or editorial assessment and guidance.
Article may not be indexed or accessible to readers worldwide.
Paper may never be published or only be intermittently available.
If published, paper might may not be permanently archived for search and retrieval.
Work might be published without author permission.
Paper may not be protected by copyright or copyright not enforced.
Charges high fee for publication: “article processing charge.”
No dissemination to target readership.
Lack of academic recognition.
Prevents subsequent publication in a legitimate journal.
Supports an unscrupulous and predatory industry.
Undermines professional and public trust in published research.
Journal Title ∙ Do you recognize the journal name as well established and reputable?
∙ Do you read the journal regularly? Do you cite papers from this journal in your references?
∙ Watch for familiar words chosen to sound like mainstream journals.
Solicitation ∙ Did you receive an email invitation from an editor you don't know from a journal you do not recognize?
∙ Do they promise rapid review, high likelihood of acceptance, and quick publication online only?
Website ∙ Does the website appear professional, with carefully edited text and optimized images?
∙ Do web links function properly? Is there a working search function?
∙ Does the journal have a professional publishing office with a clear address and contact information? Check the address with online mapping program to see if it might be just a mail drop to establish a US address. Consider calling the journal office.
∙ Are manuscripts submitted by email (worse yet, to a nonprofessional address), rather than through an editorial manager program?
∙ Does the website reference the Index Copernicus Value (a bogus impact metric)?
Sponsorship ∙ Is it clear who owns the journal? Is the owner also an editor? Is it published by a major professional association that you recognize?
∙ For how many years has the journal been published? (Longer is better.)
∙ Confirm the journal name on the organization's official website.
Indexing ∙ Is the journal listed by the National Library of Medicine in MEDLINE and thus also in PubMed? Medline is more important for legitimacy; PubMed is used as a search engine more often.
∙ Is the journal also indexed in other prominent indexing systems, such as: OVID, EMBASE, Scopus, PSYCHINFO, or CINAHL?
Content ∙ Review the table of contents and published papers of several issues. Is the journal's content related to common themes and appear legitimate? Excessively broad content raises concerns.
∙ Are authors of research articles also named on the editorial team or editorial board, suggesting a closed group?
Editorial Team ∙ Do you recognize names on the editorial team or editorial board? Are they major experts in content areas of the journal and your work? Are their affiliations listed?
∙ Do they represent a broad group from a variety of institutions and nations?
Peer review ∙ Does the journal outline a rigorous peer review process and give realistic timelines?
Production values ∙ Examine the website, article text, images, and references; are they in professional, high-quality format?
Policies ∙ Does the journal require authors to declare adherence to ethical research standards, such as protection of human and animal subjects, Helsinki Declaration, informed consent, and patient release of information?
∙ Does the journal commit to follow the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICJME) and Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)?
Publishing Agreement ∙ Is the agreement explicit, transparent, and fair?
∙ It is easy to find on the journal website?
∙ Is copyright ownership, transfer, and licensing clear and fair and meet your needs?
Article Processing Fees ∙ Are the fees for submission or publication clear in the Information for Authors?
∙ Is the fee to publish too low? Most major legitimate open access journals charge greater than $1,00014
∙ Is it clear what the author gets in return for paying the fee? What rights does the author retain for other uses of the published material? Read the publisher's copyright agreement to see this information.
- Table 4.
Resources on Publishing Ethics Guidelines and Predatory Journals. (All links accessed July 6, 2018.)
Resource Name Tool to Assess Journals Notes Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) COPE Digest: Publication Ethics in Practice. Established 1997. Over 12,000 publishers and journals. Published ethical guidelines and provides ethical consultation to editors, publishers, authors, and reviewers. Browse or search cases involving predatory journals and related ethical issues (https://publicationethics.org/cases). https://publicationethics.org https://publicationethics.org/cases Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) What is the DOAJ Seal of Approval for Open Access Journals? Started in 2003 at Lund University, Sweden. https://doaj.org https://doaj.org/publishers#seal Over 10,000 journals, publishers, editors, universities, and libraries. Published ethical guidelines. Not inclusive: e.g., does not include Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, Family Medicine, or Annals of Family Medicine. Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) HowOpenIsIt? Established 2008 with supported of Wellcome Trust. 133 journal and book publishers, related organizations. Published ethical guidelines. Example members: BioMed Central, Public Library of Science (PLOS), DOAJ, and CLOCKSS Archive. https://oaspa.org https://www.plos.org/how-open-is-it World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) Identifying Predatory or Pseudo-Journals. Established 1995. Global association of editors of peer-reviewed medical journals. Published ethical guidelines. http://www.wame.org http://www.wame.org/identifying-predatory-or-pseudo-journals Think Check Submit Reference this list for your chosen journal to check if it is trusted. Founded 2018 by BioMed Central, COPE, DOAJ, OASPA, and others. Tool available in many languages. https://thinkchecksubmit.org http://thinkchecksubmit.org/check/ National Library of Medicine NLM Catalog: Journals referenced in the NCBI Databases Journal information and whether it is indexed in MEDLINE, PubMed, or PubMed Central. Look for the phrase “Currently indexed for MEDLINE.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals Journal Citation Reports https://jcr.incites.thomsonreuters.com/ In general, a higher number of journal citations is associated with legitimate journals.
