Useful links

‘Predatory’ journals commonly send phishing emails offering open access publication in exchange for payment of article publishing charges, but lack robust editorial services, academic rigor or credibility. Here are some useful ways to check for ‘predatory’ journals:

• The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals. Journals must meet strict criteria to qualify for an entry in the directory.
• Think. Check. Submit. helps you to choose trusted journals by offering a simple checklist that you can use to assess the credentials of a journal or publisher.

Sherpa provide services to help authors and institutions make informed and confident decisions regarding open access publication and compliance. Sherpa services are divided into three:

• Sherpa Fact is a tool for checking whether a particular journal complies with research funders' open access policies
• Sherpa Romeo provides information on journals' and publishers' open access archiving conditions
• Sherpa Juliet provides information on research funder’s open access policies

• The Open Access Button is a browser bookmarklet that helps you to find free access to scientific and scholarly research. It was re-launched in October 2014.
• The Versions Toolkit from the London School of Economics addresses the issues relating to versions of academic papers in digital repositories.