Distinguish starting journals from predatory ones

Question

As you know, there are journals -predatory journals- which are just publishing scams, without actual peer review, etc. but look like genuine ones, and it is a problem for the honest researcher to avoid them.

Until recently there was a free blacklist, Jerry Beall's (which had flaws), and now there is Cabell's list, which apart from being behind a paywall, may not distinguish predatory journals from new ones (see this review).

As the number of publications seems ever-increasing, I feel new, legitimate journals will play an important role in next years. I would be willing to publish in one of them sometime, but I don't know how to identify them. For the moment being, each time I receive an email promoting a starting journal (as some may in good faith do), I just dismiss it as being a predatory one.

So the question is: Are there good ways of knowing that a new journal is legitimate? Perhaps is there some kind of white list?

Answer 1

Look at the editorial board. If it contains respectable, well-known researchers in the field, then it's likely to be a serious journal.

Answer 2

Most new respectable journals will be backed by an institution, so you can have a look at sponsors. They put their reputation on the line, so this is probably a more secure verification than only looking at the editorial board (although not having a well-known sponsor does not mean a journal is predatory!).

The publisher may also give an indication, but not necessarily a very strong one (I would probably qualify some journals published by very well-known publishers as predatory)

Let me give some examples of serious journal, backed up by institutions:

• Discrete Analysis is funded by Cambridge University,

• Algebraic Combinatorics (see also below) is funded by the foundation Compositio Mathematica, and is published by Centre Mersenne (which you have probably never heard of, but who also publishes established journals such as Annales de L'institut Fourier),

• Annales Henri Lebesgue are funded by a university, CNRS, public research units, etc.,

• North-Western European Journal of Mathematics is funded by the math department at Université de Lille.

Answer 3

Judging a journal is like judging a person. You can't just look at one feature and make up your mind about it. You have to spend your time and study each journal. Here is what I usually look at when picking a new, not well-known journal:

1. Indexed in the broadest, yet reputable ranking system. Even the journals that just popped up and carried only by a faculty of one university can make it into some broad ranking list, given legitimate effort.

2. Journal's "face": website, publisher's website, public info. Read the publicly available info about the journal: scope, author guidelines, editorial board, etc. In most cases it is enough to pass a judgement. Every legitimate new journal that pops up is either open-access with no publication fees or introduced by a reputable publisher.

3. Finally, google the journal and the publisher if you haven't already and look through at least the first 10 searches to see if nothing suspicious pops up.

To sum up, just read about the journal. If you don't read, you won't learn. There is really no single rule of thumb. If there was, the predatory journals would certainly exploit it.

Also it is worth noting that "predatory" is not black and white when it comes to journals. There is certainly a gradient to it. Even some of the most reputable journals often have their practices questioned, such as the quality of reviews, paywalls, publication fees, etc.

Answer 4

A new respectable journal is created by a group of established scientists, who usually publish in the journal and persuade collegues to publish there, So after a year or two MAthSciNet and Zentralblatt will have the journal in the database. If I want to know about a journal I have never heard of I look it up in these databases. If it is not there, I forget about it.

Answer 5

Read the articles, look who's publishing there.

Usually you should have a pretty good feeling about all the important and good journals in your field just by doing your research which requires you to read other articles.

Publish in those journals and never in those which send you emails asking/begging for submissions. Except for invited contributions but if you are at that stage in your career that you get invited to publish you should definitely know about most journals.

Answer 6

Since the question is migrated from MathOverflow, I suppose it is about mathematics journals. Anyway, my answer applies only to them.

It is usually easy to tell.

a) Predatory journals usually charge publication fee which they call "open access". (This is the main reason of existence of these journals).

b) They are not refereed in Math Reviews, and finally

c) Look at the editorial board, of course. And at the publisher.