Notice about Predatory Publishing

What is predatory publishing?

Predatory publishing broadly refers to the publication of purportedly scholarly content (in journals and articles, monographs, books, or conference proceedings) where the journal or publisher approaches potential authors in a deceptive or fraudulent manner, typically by an email solicitation, with an offer to get published, often using the author publication charge business model to collect payment, without any regard for quality assurance in editing, peer review,  author services, or the fate of the author’s article in the indexed scholarly literature. Whereas predatory journals or publishers typically are profit-generating businesses, some may pose as non-profit entities such as academic societies or research institutions.

Predatory journals or publishers cheat authors (and their funders and institutions) through charging publishing-related fees without providing the expected or industry standard services. Predatory journals or publishers may also deceive academics into serving as editorial board members or peer reviewers. In short, fake scholarly publications lack the usual features of editorial oversight and transparent policies and operating procedures that are required from legitimate peer-reviewed publications.

What should authors look out for to identify a predatory journal?

Think. Check. Submit, a global initiative that helps researchers identify trusted journals and publishers for their research, explains that a predatory journal or publisher may display one or more of the following characteristics.

• A journal title which can be easily confused with another journal or that might mislead potential authors and readers about the journal’s origin, scope or association with other journals
• Very wide scope
• Displays of unofficial impact factors
• False claims of being indexed in major services like PubMed or DOAJ
• No publisher address or contact information
• Unclear ownership of the journal
• Spams researchers with many emails inviting submissions, often unrelated to expertise
• Advertises very fast times from submission to publication
• Publishes out-of-scope articles
• Publishes nonsense articles
• Poor or non-existent editing of articles (many spelling mistakes or very poor grammar)
• Hides information on charges
• No editorial board is listed, or the editorial board comprises dead or retired scholars or scholars who are not specialized in the topic
• Lack of information on the policies of the journal, such as peer review, licensing and copyright

How can I submit an article to one of the official Endocrine Society journals?

The Endocrine Society welcomes journal submissions at their official Editorial Manager submission sites only.

The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism: https://www.editorialmanager.com/jclinendometab/default.aspx

Endocrinology: https://www.editorialmanager.com/endocrinology/default.aspx

Endocrine Reviews: https://www.editorialmanager.com/edrv/default.aspx

Journal of the Endocrine Society: https://www.editorialmanager.com/js/default.aspx

JCEM Case Reports: https://www.editorialmanager.com/jcemcr/default.aspx

Additional Resources for Authors:

Get to know the signs of a predatory journal or publisher. If you are unsure whether you might be submitting to a predatory journal or publisher, please review the below resources:   

• Think. Check. Submit. (www.thinkchecksubmit.org)
• Committee on Publication Ethics (www.publicationethics.org)
• World Association of Medical Editors (https://www.wame.org/identifying-predatory-or-pseudo-journals)

If you are still unsure whether you are being contacted by a predatory journal appearing to be an Endocrine Society journal, please feel free to reach out to [email protected].