Open Access Publishing: Predatory Publishers

Your Copyright in your original work is...

• Immediate upon creation in a fixed tangible medium (paper, pdf, canvas, etc.)
• Transferable (you can assign your individual rights to a publisher or other entity)
• Shared equally among copyright owners (each author retains their own equal share in the work regardless of others actions)
• Authors may not always be owners (for example a work for hire,Govt. publication, or the author has already assigned another entity)
• Life of the author +70 years (it lasts a long time and includes anonymous works)

Click here for more on Copyright 

How to Spot a Predatory Publisher

1. ​Do your homework when considering an invitation to publish or serve as a reviewer. Who is it that's asking for your scholarship or your time, and what are their practices? Don't wait to find out until it's too late.

2. Pay attention to who publishes the journals you're considering; reach out to colleagues listed as authors, editors, or reviewers before you commit to anything to verify their affiliation with the journal or publisher. An illegitimate publisher will often list people as editors or reviewers without their consent.

3. Review the easy guidelines at Think. Check. Submit.

Other sources for vetting Publishers

• DOAJ's Publishing best practice and standards for inclusion.

• Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, jointly published by OASPA, COPE, DOAJ and WAME. Reputable open access publishers are often members of one or more of these organizations.

• Ulrich's Periodicals Directory provides detailed information about periodicals of all types, including information about peer review and abstracting and indexing.