Webinar hosted by SPARC

The problem of "predatory" publishers is often the first issue raised by faculty in conversations about Open Access. Authors (rightly) complain of being spammed with solicitations to publish in questionable journals. Attempts to combat the problem with “blacklists” and similar tactics have met with only limited success. However, there are emerging efforts to provide the community with reliable information on how to distinguish low-quality predatory publications from legitimate Open Access journals.

These efforts include work by the well-known Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), which has undergone a rigorous process of strengthening its criteria for inclusion in its index to ensure that those journals listed meet stringent editorial standards. At the same time, the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), the international trade association of Open Access publishers, is enforcing similar standards before a publisher qualifies for membership. A multi-lingual, cross-industry collaboration called "Think. Check. Submit." has also been launched to provide a resource directly to authors to walk them through reviewing potential publishing venues and weed out predatory journal options.