Biosciences for Researchers

The Transparency and Openness Promotion Guidelines, or TOP Guidelines, are a set of 8 standards that signal support for openness and transparency in scientific publishing. The standards include: 

• Citation Standards
• Data Transparency
• Analytic Methods (Code) Transparency
• Design and Analysis Transparency
• Study Preregistration
• Analysis Plan Preregistration 
• Replication

Each standard has defined levels of adherence associated. Journals that are embracing the Guidelines and see a need for improved transparency can become signatories to the TOP Guidelines. 

Search Top Factor

Search for a journal to evaluate it based on the TOP Guidelines.

Predatory journals are publishing venues that are dishonest about their policies including peer-review. Because there are so many new journals starting to publish it can be difficult to identify which journals to stay away from. If you are questioning whether a specific journal is reputable the following tips may help. When in doubt, contact a librarian!

Use library tools:

• Are they actually indexed in the databases they claim to be on their website? Such as the Web of Science or PubMed.
• Are they listed on UlrichsWeb, a library tool for tracking serials?

Use your judgment:

• Do you recognize the names and reputations of their editorial members?
• Have you read articles from the journal? Are they suspect?
• Are the articles, including figures and graphs of high quality?
• Do you identify typos in the content?

Use lists (but sparingly):

• DOAJ - highly vetted resource listing open access journals
• Beall's List (archived version) - dated and imperfect list.