Skip to Main Content

Research Guides

Chemistry

A guide to resources and tools for chemistry research. For information on the A.D. Allen Chemistry Library spaces and services, please visit https://chemistry.library.utoronto.ca.

Deceptive Publishers and Conferences

As researchers you may receive many unsolicited requests to publish, present or even be an editor of a new journal.  Some requests are easy to spot as predatory because they are poorly targeted and asking you to publish is a field different from your own or the information is garbled. But some are very subtle and can suck you in before you know it.
 
Professors Geoff Ozin and Dwight Seferos wrote an opinion piece about this subject and its effect on academics.
 
One example, Academic Research in Science, Engineering, Art and Management - first red flag with unlikely combination of topics - claims on it's web page to have journals with Impact factors of up to 4.5. I checked a number of the titles and they are not in the Journal Citation Reports. There are many more publishers that are just as misleading.
 
When in doubt, please consult U of T's Identifying Deceptive Publishers Checklist, available in both English and French.