Checklist for predatory journal

Recently a newer faculty member asked for our advice about how to tell if an OA journal was legitimate. Here is a checklist we sent him:

1.       The journal asks for a submission fee instead of a publication fee or tries to keep the copyright to authors’ work. 

2.       The editorial board is very small or “coming soon.”

3.       A single publisher releases an overwhelmingly large suite of new journals all at one time. 

4.       The journal says an issue will be available at a certain time, but the issue never appears. 

5.       The journal title notes a national or international affiliation that does not match its editorial board or location. 

6.       There are fundamental errors in the titles and abstracts.

7.       The content of the journal varies from the title and stated scope.

8.    The website is not professional in quality.

The journal passed all the criteria listed, although to be honest, the website wasn't the best in the world. The journal charged a reasonable publication fee ($160), had a good size editorial board, was the only journal published by that publisher, published on a regular schedule, had both US and international members on their editorial board (about half were from public colleges in GA), had no apparent errors in the titles or abstracts, and seemed to publish within its stated scope. 

The faculty member was very appreciative of our quick and thorough response.