Due to inadequate quality assurance of the content of predatory journals the published research results are suspicious of qualitative deficiency. This carries a great danger of damaging the authors own reputation and the reputation of the TU Braunschweig. As a rule, visibility, accessibility and long-term availability of research results published in predatory journals has to be questioned at least. These business practices and models should not be supported at all!

Many predatory journal publishers or conference organizers are characterized by using quite often personalised e-mail advertising. In addition, the journal titles are similar to well-kown and well-renowned journal titles, so that they are suggesting high impact factors or similar indicators.

Many predatory conferences take place in popular destinations and provide a wide range of topics. Large numbers of participants and the announcement of well-known and well-renowned scientists (without their approval or knowledge) suggest seriousness.

If you are going to publish an article, please check whether the journal or book publisher is listed in Scopus, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) or the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) and/or whether the publisher is a member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) or not. If none of these criteria are met please check the journal in one of the following sources:

• Think!Check!Submit!
• Journal Evaluation Tool

For recognizing unserious conferences visit:

• Think!Check!Attend!

If you haven't found any information about the journal, please search for the publisher or conference organizer on the Internet, in professional forums of scientific communities or contact us: openaccess@tu-braunschweig.de.