KU - URA Office

Predatory Journal Check

The URA Office has studied predatory journals to support researchers' efforts to find high quality publications. We have selected 11 questions to assess whether or not a publication might be a predatory journal. While it is difficult be 100% sure, the answers to these questions should provide a relatively accurate estimate about a journal's trustworthiness. Use the form below to perform a self-assessment of a journal that might be questionable. (Note: Select "N/A" if an answer is unclear or cannot be determined.)

If you think you have found a new predatory journal, please submit it HERE.

Predatory Journal Assessment:

Q1: Is the journal/publisher on a predatory publisher list? (Yes is negative.) (E.g., predatoryjournals.com, beallslist.weebly.com, etc.)
Q2: Are the articles indexed in a service used by the university (Scopus or Web of Science)?
Q3: Is the contact information (phone, email, post) easy to find and appear professional? (Does the physical address match the area code of the phone number? Is the email address professional and appear related to the journal?)
Q4: Is the journal clear about its peer-review process?
Q5: Do the members of the editorial board mention the journal on their own website, or are the members fake scholars?
Q6: If the journal claims to be open access, does it allow the author to retain copyright?
Q7: Is the website professional? (E.g., No spelling/grammar errors, missing pages, strange formatting, use of copyrighted images, etc.)
Q8: Does the aparent scope of interest (from the journal name and/or description) match the articles it has published?
Q9: Is the article processing/publication fee very different from typical journals in your field? (Yes is negative.) (E.g., Less than $150 (USD) for open access, or very high fees combined with lack of editorial oversight.)
Q10: Is there a clear retraction policy?
Q11: Is the publisher a member of a recognized industry initiative? (E.g., COPE, DOAJ, OASPA, INASP's Journals Online, AJOL, etc.)

Results are not saved permanently.

Result:

Scoring System:

If the answer to a question is positive (usually "Yes" but sometimes "No") the score will be 1.
If the answer is negative (usually "No" but sometimes "Yes") the score will be -1.
If the answer cannot be determined ("N/A") the score will be 0.
The final score lies on a range between -11 and +11.
A final score of ～0 or lower should be considered suspicious.
We recommend only publishing in journals that receive a score of about 5 or higher.
However, the final decision to publish is yours.

Please contact the URA Office if you have any questions.