Academic Ethics

學術倫理

【Important Reminder】Beware of Predatory Journal or Conference Traps

1. Explanation: In order to re-calibrate the academic atmosphere and avoid damage to the reputation of the institution, we would like to remind all units and faculty members to pay attention to whether journals or academic conference to which papers have been submitted to have been listed as predatory journals or conferences.

2. Common Hints of a Predatory Journal or Conference:

  • Received an unknown invitation
  • Alternative Impact Factor
  • Journals with the same name but published by different party
  • Unusual journal website
  • Manuscript review is extremely fast – they can't wait to publish your paper, if you ignore the notice, you may even receive a call to negotiate the price and be coerced to publish your paper. 
  • Conference has actively called for papers many times, claiming that papers presented in the conference will be automatically included in journals; conference not organized by schools, institutions, or professional associations, and the topics of the conference are diverse and divergent.  
  • Mainstream Open Access publishers will inform the author of any necessary payment on the official website before the manuscript is invited and submitted. If the amount is higher than the market price in that subject field, don't be fooled.

3. Also refer to the National Science and Technology Council’s statement on the topic of "Predatory Journals or Conferences" (attachment).

【Verification Channel for Predatory Journal and Conferences】

Item

Verification Channel

Explanation

Predatory Journals

Academic database

Blacklist of suspected predatory journals

Whitelist of open access journals

Self-checklist of predatory journals

  • Use Think. Check. Submit.to assist in judging whether the journal is operated by a legitimate organization. If you, as a researcher, can answer "Yes", you may consider submitting your paper.
  • English version: https://thinkchecksubmit.org/
  • Think, double check, and resubmit(Translated by Professor Hao-ren Ke, Deputy Director of the Institute of Library and Information Science, National Taiwan Normal University; included in the personal blog of Baishi Jinglun)

Predatory Conferences

Predatory Conference check steps

  • The Think.Check.Attend. website provides researchers with three simple steps to decide whether to participate in a conference, and provides a checklist as well. If you, as a researcher, can answer "Yes", you may consider attending the conference.
  • Website: https://thinkcheckattend.org/resources
  • Think, double check, and attend(Translated by Professor Hao-ren Ke, Deputy Director of the Institute of Library and Information Science, National Taiwan Normal University; included in the personal blog of Baishi Jinglun)

Best Regards,

Research and Development Division

2022.12.05