Predatory Publishing

The tools listed on this guide will help you avoid getting taken in by solicitations from a predatory or illegitimate publishing organization. It is recommended that you do not respond to these types of emails, even if it is to decline the offer or to ask questions. You may receive more than one email from the same or similar organization over the course of a few weeks or months; this may be an attempt to verify your email address and credentials. If you would like advice or have questions, you can always contact me using the Contact information to the left.

If you have already submitted a publication to one of these journals or conferences, you can try to get it removed from the journal and/or the website of the publisher. This may be difficult to do, especially if you have signed a copyright transfer agreement. This case study from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) is a useful guide for this scenario.

Even if you have not submitted a publication, or have not responded to any emails, you may still find that your name and professional profile is being used by an organization to promote their event or their journal. You may be called a committee member, a conference organizer, or an editorial board member or reviewer. In this case, you can contact the publisher to ask for your name to be removed, but unfortunately, you may get no response to your request. It may be possible to seek legal action if this is the case, depending on the situation. You can also submit a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission regarding this publisher.

Finally, consider updating any type of scholarly profile you have to make it explicit that you are not affiliated with these organizations, journals or conferences. This would include any Google Scholar profile you might have, your Mendeley or ResearchGate profiles, or even your email signature.