A major problem in the current scientific world is represented by so-called predatory practices, when authors are offered the possibility of making their scientific work visible in the form of publication in a journal, publication of a monograph, participation in a conference, etc., for a fee, while there is no actual peer review process or other control of the credibility and quality of the published work results. This is a clearly negative phenomenon that threatens one of the basic principles of scientific research – good-quality review management and the need to successfully defend one's results in front of colleagues in the field (“peer review”). At the same time, the aforementioned practices are constantly being improved by their masterminds, and it is often difficult to detect them in time and avoid them, especially with the current ever-increasing emphasis on making available the results that were financed from public sources in the form of so-called open access. The following brief guide tries to summarize at least the basic recommendations in this matter.
Predator magazines
In the vast majority of disciplines cultivated at SU, it is still possible to publish for free in practically all high-quality journals, i.e. without "Publication fees", "Article processing fees", etc.; possible exceptions are payments for above-standard graphic processing (color illustrations on better paper, etc.) or an offer of an optional additional payment for publishing an article in open access mode. Therefore, if the journal requires mandatory payment for publication, it is better to avoid it and look for another.
A good-quality review process takes time. If a journal offers a quick response from reviewers (less than a month, or even earlier), it is suspicious and again it is better to look at another journal.
Good quality journals do not need to send emails with an offer to publish in them – on the contrary, it is often a problem to “push your paper through” in them. Therefore, if you receive such an email and it is not from a colleague you know or a respected authority in the field, do not respond to it.
There are various lists of predatory journals (see some links at the end of this text) that can be consulted. However, some journals may sometimes be wrongly listed on them, just as some may be missing from them (new predatory journals are being created all the time).
Predatory publishers
In addition to the publishing houses that publish the predatory journals described in the previous section, some publishers of monographs also belong here (e.g. Lambert Academic Publishing, which for a fee offered to publish diploma and dissertation theses in the form of a monograph, gained a bad reputation).
Predator conferences
In the case of conferences, the goal is to extract registration fees from participants, while the conference itself has a low professional level or, in extreme cases, does not even take place at all. A good guide is the conference organizer – if it is not an established university or scientific institution, and the conference is not held on the grounds of such a university or institution, then proceed with caution.
