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Evaluating Journals Before You Publish

Learn how to spot potential predatory publishers and hijacked journals before you submit your articles for publication. Created for Nursing faculty.

Open Access Spectrum Evaluation Tool

Source: How Open Is It?
The Open Access Spectrum was developed by SPARC in collaboration with PLOS and OASPA. This tool displays the core components of open access across a spectrum indicating how closed or open a journal is based on its policies on reader rights, reuse rights, copyrights, author posting rights, automatic posting, and machine readability.

More Resources

Journal Evaluation

Want to Avoid Predatory Publishers? Start Here (Katina Magazine)
Choosing and Evaluating Journals, Publishers & Conferences (Western Illinois University)
How to Avoid Predatory Publishers (American Psychological Association)
Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (OASPA)
Publishing Tips: How Not to Fall for a Predatory Journal (L. Gagnon: Nature Indiablog post, 2018)
Scholarly Communication Toolkit: Evaluating Journals (Association of College and Research Libraries)
Ten Simple Rules for Avoiding Predatory Publishing Scams (M. Leonard, S. Stapleton, P. Collins, T. K. Selfe, & T. Cataldo: PLoS Computational Biology, 2021)

Scholarly Publishing

Demystifying Scholarly Metrics by Marc W. Vinyard; Jaimie Beth Colvin
Call Number: eBook

ISBN: 9781440875939

Publication Date: 2022-02-25
The Predatory Paradox by Amy Koerber; Jesse C. Starkey; Karin Ardon-Dryer; R. Glenn Cummins; Lyombe Eko; Kerk F. Kee
Call Number: eBook

ISBN: 9781805111368

Publication Date: 2023

Open Access

Open Access Myths (University of Illinois–Chicago)
Selecting an Open Access Journal for Publication: Be Cautious (L. Hoffecker, M. Hastings-Tolsma, D. Vincent, & H. Zuniga: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 2015)

Achieving Global Open Access by Stephen Pinfield
Call Number: eBook

ISBN: 9781032625751

Publication Date: 2024-07-10
Survey of US Higher Education Faculty 2023, Payment of Open Access Publication Fees by Primary Research Group; Ana Gebert (Summary by)
Call Number: eBook

ISBN: 9798885171243

Publication Date: 2023-01-18

The report gives highly detailed information on which faculty are receiving support for the payment of open access publication fees and helps define who is making personal payments for publication in open access journals.

Information for Authors

Author’s Rights (University of Illinois–Chicago)
Consequences of Predatory Publishing — What happens if you submit to a predatory journal, and what to do if you fall victim to a predatory publisher (Tiffin University, Ohio)
Scholarly Communication Guides for Authors (University of California's Office of Scholarly Communication)
Understanding Open Access: When, Why, & How to Make Your Work Openly Accessible (L. Rubow, R. Shen, & B. Schofield: Authors Alliance, 2015)
Open Access and Publishing Fees (University of Illinois–Chicago)