Predatory Publishers

Predatory publishers are opportunistic publishing venues that exploit researchers and professors based on their academic requirements to have their work published. Predatory publishing organizations focus on economic gain and offer little to no reward for academic authors to use their services. Instead, they take the author’s money and publish the work without peer review or professional editing, completely diminishing the integrity of the research. As predatory publishers continue to grow in the world of academic publishing it is important to understand the risk associated with these spam attacks. 

The scam works by the predatory publisher claiming to be a legitimate open-access operation and targeting the existing works of researchers and professors. They will make false claims regarding the practices of the organization and proceed to offer submission to the journal for some amount of money. The payment options will often be limited to a credit card or direct wire transfer to the sender of the email.

• Relatively low article processing charges (APCs)
• Fuzzy, distorted, or unauthorized images on the publisher’s website
• Requests that the article be submitted via email
• Lack of policies regarding retractions, corrections, and plagiarism

URL filtering of known predatory publishing websites

• Report predatory publisher spam to spam@rit.edu
• Examine these lists of known predatory publishers
• Research the publishing organization and conferences referenced in the email

• Understanding Predatory Publishers
• RIT InfoGuide
• Ethical Editing Case Study: Avoiding Predatory Publishers