“Phisher :Lures you in with promises then charges large fees after your paper has been “accepted.” Publication fees are usually not openly disclosed and after acceptance phishers may demand payment even though no paperwork has been signed.
Imposter or Hijacker: Poses as a well-established journal or as a publication associated with a well-known brand or society. Often these journal stack on an extra word to an existing journal name such as “Advances”, “Review” or “Reports” or create websites that appear to be affiliated with another publication.
Trojan Horse: Has a legitimate looking website, often with impressive lists of publications, but upon closer inspection nothing is what it seems. The journals are empty shells or worse, populated by stolen or plagiarized articles.
Unicorn: Too good to be true! These publishers may in fact be legitimate businesses which are not providing good products or customer support/service. Common problems may include: no archiving policy (meaning your publication could disappear at any time); missing or ill defined peer-review criteria; and possible publishing ethics violations
Identifying Predatory Publishers
The promise of impossibly rapid review and online publication timelines. (Committee on Publication Ethics, 2014)
A fabricated editorial board, an editor whose expertise is not in the journal’s area of concern, or an absence of reviewers. Unfortunately, predatory journals have been known to add names to board,reviewer, and editorial positions without the individual’s permission. (Committee on Publication Ethics, 2014)
Legitimate-sounding titles that mimic the names of established and respected journals. (Committee on Publication Ethics, 2014)
A focus on making concessions to the author, not on careful attention to scholarship, legitimacy, ethical publishing, or scientific validity. (Pearson, 2015) Online-only publishing.
Although not a clear indication of a problem because many excellent journals publish online only (see above), predatory publishers do not invest in paper publishing.
Online is the only way to make the profits they seek.
No proper or fake editorial board in the journal website.(2) Often asking for high publication charges.
Often claim to have high impact factor with indexing in “Google Scholar”,“Scopus”etc. Often it is the first issue or early issues but with high impact factor.
Instant publications within few days.
No peer review system.
Never even ask for error correction, even in case of major grammatical mistake.
Often alluring to publish free of charge even in a paid journal.
Journal's short name is often similar to a famous journal eg.“Nature X”to“Nature”
They request you to submit as if you are a valuable person in thefield even though you are an amateur.(10) Never cited in a good journal
