Signs of a Bad Journal:

• Large publication fee
• Vague or generalized title
• Publishes papers in virtually any field of research
• Immediate or rapid acceptance
• No clear physical location for the publisher, or incongruous locations (i.e., the American Journal of Linguistics should not be published in Bangalore, India)
• Large editorial board of unknowns from around the world
• Poor language usage in correspondence
• Contacts you directly and inexplicably (no known connection to you)
• It is published more than 4 times a year
• It’s email address is private and not related to an institution
• Owner of the publishing house is defined as an editor of a large number of the published journals
• Non-transparent procedures of publishing
• Fraudulent indication of the impact factor or. It gives its special impact factor
• Cheating when stating indexing (eg. in the index databases that do not exist or cite inclusion in the legitimate and prestige index databases, where it can not be included)
• Incongruous website publisher without any real base (eg. "Leading publisher" - in catalogs but has a very young anniversary)

Signs of a Good Journal:

• Known in the field
• Clear focus or theme
• Associated with a specific publisher, university or institution
• No, or very low, publication fee (for the author)
• Editorial board consists of identifiable individuals known in the field
• Long response times (for review)
• Rejections or requirements for changes
• Clear and informed advice from reviewers with subject-specific references
• Issues a CFP but does not invite you personally to submit
• Published papers contain DOI numbers

Signs of a Bad Conference:

• Located in a hotel or rented space, not in a university or other intellectual institution
• Has a vague theme encompassing many disciplines
• Emphasizes parallel sessions to accommodate huge numbers of acceptances
• Organizing committee is people from all over the world, not individuals local to the conference’s location
• Offers resort or spa accommodation
• Promises to publish works that will be ‘submitted’ for indexing or ranking
• Registration costs are disproportionately higher than can be explained by what the participant receives (food, book of abstracts, etc.)
• Poor language usage in either the Call or subsequent correspondence
• Encourages ‘virtual’ presentations

Signs of a Good Conference:

• Has a specific and clear theme
• Located in a University or other institution associated with scholarship or research
• Has a known organizing committee, or at least an organizing committee clearly associable with the institution or location
• Has a clear and reasonable explanation of what the conference fee covers and includes
• Explains clearly what the publication arrangements, if any, will be for papers presented
• Prioritizes in-person presentations

Accessories for assessing publishers

• Trusted publishers of open access: Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) 
  http://oaspa.org/membership/members/
• Think. Check. Submit. campaign to help researchers identify trusted journals for their research.

See also the articles:

• John Bohannon “Feature: How to hijack a journal” 
  http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/11/feature-how-hijack-journal
• “Why you should care about the rise of fake journals and the bad science they publish” 
  http://theconversation.com/why-you-should-care-about-the-rise-of-fake-journals-and-the-bad-science-they-publish-72130
• Christine Laine & Margaret A. Winker, “Identifying Predatory or Pseudo-Journals – WAME”, February 2017
  http://www.wame.org/identifying-predatory-or-pseudo-journals

If you have a question about the quality of the journal or publisher, please contact:

SEEU Research Office