5 Tips to Avoid Predatory Publisher Groups and Identify Fraudulent Emails

By Jessica Lipowski

By now, most researchers and authors know about predatory publishers. As people become more aware of what to look out for with these type of predatory journals, new groups have been popping up, targeting authors with fraudulent emails in the attempts to take money, promising their paper will be published in a particular outlet.

Some predatory journal publishers select titles for their journals that are very similar to an established, reputable journal. Emails sent to authors to solicit submissions are very easily mistaken as being from the established journal.

An even greater concern are the predatory groups that advertise services to help authors get published in established journals. These groups sometimes have quite sophisticated websites that include a list of established journals they claim to have an affiliation with.  At least one of these groups has sent fraudulent emails masquerading as an established journal, using the Journal’s title, Editor’s name and email address, and including a link to the journal’s website. This group charged authors a fee in exchange for helping get their articles published in one of the journals listed on its website. The group did submit the authors’ paper to the journals, however, it sent a fake acceptance letter to the author, presumably to then bill for its services.  

Another scam involved two editors’ emails being spoofed in order to send a phony urgent wire payment demand to an author, stating payment was necessary in order to continue the submission process. The manuscript submission platform was not breached in this case, but instead, the scam was initiated after the co-author’s email account was apparently compromised. The individuals behind the scam likely accessed the submission confirmation and account creation emails and used those as the basis for the scam.

Below are some key components you can use to potentially identify fraudulent activity:

1.      Practice the Pause: We understand the desire to publish your research quickly. By this point, your paper may have been in the peer review process for months and now it’s finally in the home stretch. You then get this urgent email, asking you to pay for an article processing charge or acceptance fee or another type of invoice. Maybe the email is asking if you’d like to pay to fast track your article, in order to get it out more quickly. Don’t panic when requested to carry out a process urgently. It is unlikely that any journals published by any legitimate publisher would request payment for something such as speeding up a paper’s review. Placing any kind of urgency on your action should immediately raise a red flag. Check with the individual via phone or through the manuscript submission platform to confirm they sent this request. Look for the phone number or email on the official journal website. Dig into the request further. Maybe the group is asking for payment; if so, check the submission guidelines or journal website. Does that journal website state that there are fees associated with the submission? Do they offer expedited peer review? Some journals do ask for a submission fee or apply page charges, but those will be outlined explicitly in the author guidelines. Ethical journals are transparent in their processes.

2.      Verify the Email Address: We recommend corresponding directly through the manuscript submission system, but we know this is not always possible. Sometimes messages need to be exchanged outside the platform. Look carefully at the email address from which the group is mailing. Does it match previous emails with whom you were corresponding prior? Look closely to see if a zero was changed to an “O” or if gmail.com transitioned to yahoo.com. Compare any emails available in the author submission guidelines. Within the email body itself, see if there is an official signature with a valid physical address and/or phone number of an organization.

3.      Hover Over Hyperlinks and URLs: Before you click on any link, hover your mouse over the URL and see if the text of the link in the email body matches the link address of the site to which you will be directed. Is it the same? Does the website use a secure certificate (SSL), e.g. “https”? Do these links seem to be related to the Journal website, society website, and/or manuscript submission website, if applicable?

4.      Examine Spelling and Grammar: One red flag will be grammar and spelling errors. Are numerous words misspelled? Does the author of the email use poor grammar or have an unusually laudatory tone? These could be signs that the group reaching out is predatory.

5.      Research Logos: Does the acceptance letter or email have logos included? If so, do they seem to match the appropriate society, indexes, journal website or are they for something else? See if anything looks off with these logos. Is the journal affiliated with the listed society? If the letter includes a logo for the DOAJ, check whether the journal is indexed with the DOAJ. Is the logo clear, not pixelated and suggesting it was reproduced from a second source?

While publishers work on their own and collectively to try to disrupt predatory groups’ activities affecting their authors and journals, these groups can be difficult to reach, especially when they are operated from a jurisdiction that does not have reciprocal legal enforcement.

Focus on quality over speed, especially as you are getting ready to submit. Be wary of any groups offering to submit your paper on your behalf and always check the journal’s website directly to verify provided information. Do your due diligence and take the time to make sure everything lines up. While it may add a few days to the process, it’s better to be thorough than to rush into publication and never see your paper online, or worse, to be duped out of money. You can reach out to the Journal Editor directly or the publisher to verify any questions or concerns you may have.

SAGE has a variety of resources available on the Journal Author Gateway. Find answers to common author questions about submissions in the Journal Solutions Portal. Third party websites like the Directory of Open Access Journals and Think. Check. Submit. are two resources that may be helpful to authors in evaluating a journal.

SAGE stands firmly against deceptive publishing, fraudulent peer-review, plagiarism and misattribution, and other dubious practices that impair the integrity of our collective knowledge. We are committed to continuously reviewing and improving our policies. Find out more on our ethics and responsibility page. We are here for you always and wish you the best of luck in your publishing endeavors!