Target journal

This is the journal you’ve selected in which to publish your research. The journal may allow open access publishing by either the green or gold route, and may contain a mix of open and closed access publishing (this type of journal is a hybrid journal). You may need to choose a different target journal if you don’t have the funds to pay any required APC to the publisher.

Hybrid journal

This is a subscription journal which also has some articles that are open access. The author of the article is often required to pay an APC to make their work open access in this type of journal, unless they have a deal.

Deceptive journals

A deceptive or ‘predatory’ journal or publisher is one that that aggressively targets academics and researchers to publish their work in its journal, but does not actually undertake peer review. How can you tell if you’ve been approached by a predatory journal? Warning signs include:

• Sending spam requests for peer reviews and article submissions;
• Hiding information about author fees, for example offering to publish an author’s paper and then later sending a previously-undisclosed invoice;
• Providing no contact details or falsifying their location; and
• Falsely claiming to have an impact factor, or using a made-up measure.

The Directory of Open Access Journals is a great resource for identifying open access journals of a high quality. It only includes journals that meet a rigorous selection criteria, and you can be sure that these are legitimate journals.

If in doubt, use the Think. Check. Submit. website for guidance (published by ALPSP, DOAJ, INASP, ISSN, LIBER, OASPA, STM, UKSG, and individual publishers).