Predatory Journal

Not all journals are trustworthy. Some are predatory. 🦈

Predatory journals, sometimes called fraudulent, deceptive, or pseudo-journals, look like real academic journals but don’t follow proper peer review or editorial standards. They publish low-quality or fake studies to make money (1,2). 

It’s important to know these journals exist. They can spread misinformation that sounds credible – because it’s “published”, but not all journals are trustworthy (3,4). 

There are two main types of credible scientific journals (5,6): 
• Subscription journals where researchers usually don’t pay a publication fee, but readers pay for a subscription to access the published articles. 
• Open access journals, which are free for readers, because researchers typically pay a publication fee.

While the two models are different, both are still expected to follow strict scientific standards. That includes peer review (where other experts in the field critically evaluate the research before it’s published), clear disclosure of conflict-of-interest, and meeting ethical and quality requirements. These steps help ensure the science is trustworthy and reliable (7,8).

Predatory journals skip some or all of those steps. They exploit the open access model by charging fees without doing the real scientific work – no proper peer review, no expert checks, no quality control. In many cases, anyone can pay to publish anything. That’s how fake cancer cures or vaccine hoaxes sometimes end up in “journals” (1,3,9,10).

If something seems off, cross-reference with other articles or ask a medical professional or organizations (1). You can also Google the journal’s name with the word “predatory”, or check resources like Beall’s and Cabells lists, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), predatoryjournals.org, or thinkchecksubmit.org, which track and list questionable or trustworthy journals (11-15).