Attention! Do you receive emails from publishers inviting you to publish or to review, advertised with favourable publication costs and fast procedures? Unfortunately, this problem has been observed for several years.
These are usually dubious publishers. The terms predictive publishing and fake journal are also frequently mentioned in this context. Some characteristics to identify these are, for example, aggressive, impersonal advertising by email, neglected peer review procedures and journal titles that resemble those of very renowned journals. An example is the “British Journal of Arts and Social Sciences” (ISSN 2046-9578), which in title strongly resembles the reputable journal “The British Art Journal” (ISSN 1467-2006). In the assessment, black sheep cannot always be clearly distinguished from white sheep. Sometimes there are even overlaps.
The phenomenon can also be observed for conferences or book publishers and can by no means be reduced to Open Access publications.
Help is here! The university library has licensed a database that lists journals where many factors indicate that they are fake journals. Cabell’s Blacklist lists more than 11,000 journals that are checked for fakes using more than 60 indicators. You can also access this database from home via VPN. If you have any doubts, you can always contact the Open Science Team at the University Library, we will be happy to help.
Tip! Please consult us BEFORE submitting your publication, otherwise costs may arise or you may face lengthy legal disputes.
Checklists! The University Library has therefore created a website on this topic last year: https://www.tu-chemnitz.de/ub/publizieren/openaccess/index.html#serioes. Here you will find detailed information and checklists that can be used to identify such dubious offers.
Serious offers! Of course, we also offer opportunities to find serious offers, you can find those on our website as well.
Training and advice! A comprehensive presentation on the topic can help you with your publication decision. We offer individual consultations and training in your faculty or professorship if you let us know your needs.