How to Spot a Predatory Journal as a High School Student
Short answer. Check the journal before you send anything. Look for a named publisher, a described peer review process, a listed editorial board, and clear author fees. Be wary of unsolicited invitations, promised quick acceptance and fees you cannot explain. Then look the journal up in DOAJ, and ask a teacher, mentor or librarian to review it with you.
Key takeaways
- Vet the journal before you submit, using its own website, not what an invitation email says about it.
- Warning signs include unsolicited invitations, unclear fees, hidden editors and promised fast acceptance.
- A DOAJ listing is a useful check, but it is one check among several.
- Ask a teacher, mentor or librarian to look at the journal with you before you send a manuscript.
This guide is part of our walkthrough on how to do research in high school. Publishing is optional, but if you decide to submit your work, a few minutes of checking can keep you from handing it to an outlet that does not do real review.
What makes a journal predatory?
A predatory journal charges authors fees while skipping the quality control that makes a journal worth publishing in. The Journalist’s Resource, a project that reports on research for journalists, describes the pattern this way: the fees are charged without normal quality control.[4] That is why the checks below focus on things you can see yourself: who runs the journal, how review works, what it costs and who the editors are.
The line is not always sharp, and a journal can be weak without being a scam. Treat the checks as a way to decide whether you can answer “yes” to most questions, which is how Think. Check. Submit. frames its checklist: submit only if you can say yes to most or all of its questions.[1]
What are the steps to check a journal?
Work through the journal’s own site in this order, and write down what you find.
- Find the publisher. Is the publisher’s name clearly shown, and can you reach it by email, phone and post?[1]
- Read the review process. Does the site say how reviewers are used, and does it avoid promising acceptance or very short review times?[1]
- Look for the editors. DOAJ requires an editor and editorial board listed on the website, with each member’s name and affiliation.[2] Search a few of those names to see whether they are real people at real institutions.
- Read the fee page. Fees should be explained: what they cover, when they apply, and whether waivers exist.[1]
- Check indexing. Look for a valid ISSN you can confirm in the ISSN portal, and indexing in recognized databases.[3]
- Look it up in DOAJ. Then check whether the journal is a COPE member, because the checklist asks about both.[1]
- Ask a person. Show your notes to a teacher, mentor or librarian before you submit.[3]
What are the warning signs?
Most warning signs show up in the first few minutes. This table groups the ones the sources agree on.
| Sign | What to look for |
|---|---|
| Unsolicited invitations | Emails inviting you to submit, review or join an editorial board that you never asked for[3] |
| Flattery and sloppy writing | Repeated, indiscriminate invitations, excessive flattery, poor spelling or grammar[4] |
| Speed promises | Promised rapid publication or unrealistically short timelines[3][4] |
| Unclear fees | Fees that are not explained, or charges that are hidden until after you submit[4] |
| Copyright demands | Being asked to sign over copyright at submission[4] |
| Look-alike names | A title that closely mirrors an established journal[3] |
| Missing details | No publisher name, no contact information, or no described review process[4] |
One sign alone does not prove a journal is predatory, and a polished website proves nothing. Judge the whole picture, and be most careful with outlets that found you instead of the other way around.
How should you handle an unsolicited invitation?
Treat it as a lead to check, not as a compliment. A university library guide lists emails inviting you to submit, review or join an editorial board without your request as a warning sign.[3] The journals that matter to a high school researcher are ones you went looking for, so an invitation that arrives out of the blue is a reason to slow down.
Do not reply with your manuscript, and do not click links inside the message. Instead, search for the journal by name in a new tab, work through the steps above using its own site, and ask a teacher or mentor. If you cannot find a named publisher, a described review process and a clear fee page, you have your answer. A journal’s own badges or claimed listings are not proof either. Confirm any claimed listing in the directory itself.
Does a DOAJ listing mean a journal is safe?
It is a useful signal, not proof of quality. DOAJ says it only accepts journals that follow good publishing practice, requires peer review before publication and a listed editorial board, and requires journals to disclose all fees charged to authors.[2] DOAJ also says journals are removed if they stop meeting its criteria.[2]
There are two limits. DOAJ covers open access journals, so a legitimate subscription journal will not appear in it, and absence is not proof of a problem. And the Journalist’s Resource lists several checks to combine, among them COPE membership, DOAJ listing and indexing in trusted databases.[4] Use DOAJ as one of those checks, not the only one.
Who can check a journal with you?
Ask someone who has submitted work before. A university library guide advises talking with your faculty, a mentor or a librarian before you submit a manuscript.[3] At school that can be a science or English teacher, your school librarian, or a research mentor. If you are still looking for one, our guide on how to find a research mentor as a high school student covers where to start.
If the invitation came through a paid program, apply the same checks to the journals the program names. Our checklist on how to tell if a high school research program is legit shows what to ask a program before you pay.
What should you do instead of paying to publish?
You can share good work without a journal. A class presentation, a school or community write-up, or a science fair all let you describe what you did truthfully. When you list the work later, say exactly what it is. Our guide on how to describe research on the Common App shows how to state your role and the status of the work accurately.
If you want to try a journal, pick one you found yourself, run the steps above, and keep your notes. You can also build the project first with free resources, as covered in research without a lab.
What do we not know?
Journal practices and fee pages change, so check a journal’s current site rather than relying on this list. The checks here cover signs that the sources describe, and they cannot confirm that any specific journal is sound or unsound. We do not know how any admissions reader weighs a publication, and no source we know of shows that publishing in a journal changes an admission decision. Standards bodies such as COPE and indexes such as DOAJ use their own criteria, which can differ from one another and from the checklists cited here.
Frequently asked questions
- Do I have to publish my research?
- No. Publishing is one way to share work, not a requirement. You can present to a class, post a write-up or enter a science fair. If you do submit, check the venue first.
- Is a journal that is not in DOAJ automatically fake?
- No. DOAJ lists open access journals only, so a subscription journal will not appear there. Use it as one check alongside the publisher, peer review, editors and fees.
- Who can check a journal with me?
- A teacher, research mentor or school or public librarian. One university library guide advises talking with faculty, a mentor or a librarian before you submit a manuscript.