Medicine

Are Open Access publications high quality?

Regardless of the publication model, always evaluate a journal for quality.

How do I recognize a low quality Open Access journal (also known as pseudo-journals, unethical journals, or predatory journals)?

Unreasonably quick turnaround times:

• After submission, articles undergo peer review and an editing process. This can take several weeks, months, or even up to a year before the article is published.

• Be wary of a journal which offers a suspiciously quick turnaround time as they are likely cutting corners somewhere in the review process.

• You can often find journals' average turnaround times listed in indexes like the DOAJ, Cabell's Journalytics (UT Libraries does not have a subscription to this product, but the free version provides access to information for a limited set of journals), through some publishers' journal suggestion tools (Elsevier and Springer, for example) or on the journal's website (Wiley journal The Prostate, for example). 

Lack of transparency:

• High quality journals are transparent about the peer review process, article processing charges, and copyright policies.

Reputation and discoverability:

• Have you or your colleagues heard of this journal?

• Does it appear in reputable databases, indexes or directories like the DOAJ, MEDLINE, SCOPUS, or COPE? 

• Does the website list the indexes/databases in which you can find it?

Look out for "Submission Fees":

• Most Open Access publications charge article processing fees after your article has been accepted for publication.

Be Careful of Soliciting Emails:

• Journals may offer themselves as a potential publisher for your article. This is a tactic used by low quality journals to convince you to publish with them.

Read the articles: 

• Browse the journal's published articles. Do the articles have lots of mistakes? Can you find obvious flaws in their research, methodology or logic? Do you consider the articles already published to be high quality?

If you are still having trouble deciding whether a publication is trustworthy and high quality, check out "Think Check Submit." This website has checklists to help you avoid low quality journals.