Predatory and Questionable Publishing Practices How to Recognize and Avoid Them

It is beneficial for scholars to publish in an authoritative, good-quality journal, book, or conference series produced by a reputable publisher in their research field. Yet there is growing concern about the increasing number of publishers and journals that conduct allegedly questionable publishing practices – e.g. low-quality peer review and/or aggressive acquisition – and the more fraudulent predatory publishers.Predatory publishers can harm scholars and their institutions financially and reputationally by charging a fee for no peer review or publishing service at all. Predatory publishers and questionable publishing practices have a negative effect on the credibility of the published scholarly record and the scholarly community as a whole.How can you recognise and avoid these practices and publishers? What if you have submitted an article to, or are in a publishing process with, a publisher and something goes wrong or seems inaccurate?