The dark side of open access

There has recently been an increase in research students falling prey to dodgy open access journals and being asked to pay large sums of money. Such journals can be very predatory and many are simply money-making scams.

An American librarian has compiled a list of questionable open access journals which are best avoided.

Open access journals can be a great place for research students to publish but you must be sure that the publication is above board. The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) maintains a current list of open access journals, but inclusion doesn't guarantee that the journal is genuine. To be extra safe, only publish with a member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association.

If you need further advice please look at our information pages or contact us

*See also this excellent article by Professor Pat Thomson on establishing the provenance of journals: http://patthomson.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/dealing-with-the-cold-calling-journal/

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