Publishing Journal Articles for Undergraduates

Learn how to identify relevant journals, avoid predatory publishers, and manage your citations

Predatory Publishing

These journals pollute the stream of published scholarship making it more difficult for scholars and librarians to distinguish between credible and non-credible content.

How to Spot a Predatory Journal

  • Exploitive, preying on authors
  • Asking for submission fees (in addition or instead of APC (article processing charge))
  • No peer review / non-rigorous peer review
  • Asking authors to relinquish copyright
  • Editorial board is small and/or consists of members without relevant qualification
  • Too many journals from a single publisher
  • Not following a regular publishing schedule 
  • Too frequent
  • Excessive self-citation