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What Is a Predatory Journal? 5 Signs to Watch For

Predatory journals charge to publish but skip real peer review — and citing one can undermine your work. Here's what they are, why they exist, and five signs to spot them.

By The Corroba Team · July 4, 2026

A predatory journal looks like a legitimate academic journal — a real-sounding name, a website, an “impact factor” — but it publishes almost anything for a fee, without genuine peer review. Cite one and you're leaning on a source that was never vetted, which can quietly undermine an otherwise solid paper.

Why they exist

Many legitimate open-access journals charge authors a publication fee to make articles free to read. Predatory publishers exploit that model: they collect the fee and skip the review. The result is a flood of official-looking journals whose only real filter is whether you pay.

Five signs to watch for

  1. Unsolicited invitations. Flattering spam emails begging you to submit or join an editorial board.
  2. Suspiciously fast publication — “peer review in 48 hours” — for a fee.
  3. A fake or unverifiable metric instead of a real, checkable impact factor.
  4. A vague or fabricated editorial board — no real affiliations, or researchers listed without their consent.
  5. A low-quality site — typos, broken links, hidden fees, no clear scope.

How to check before you cite

  • Look the journal up in DOAJ (for open access) and check indexing in Scopus, Web of Science, or PubMed.
  • Run the journal through Think. Check. Submit. (thinkchecksubmit.org), a free checklist.
  • When in doubt, ask a librarian — they do this all day.

For the full method, see How to Check if a Journal Is Peer-Reviewed.

What if you already cited one?

Replace it. Find a peer-reviewed source that makes the same point and cite that instead — never keep a source you can't stand behind.

FAQ

Is every paid-to-publish journal predatory? No — many reputable open-access journals charge legitimate fees. The fee isn't the problem; the missing peer review is.

Can a predatory journal have a DOI? Yes. A DOI proves registration, not quality — so it's not a shortcut for vetting.

Check your sources

Corroba Verify grades each source — peer-reviewed, scholarly, preprint, or web — and flags venues it can't verify, so a predatory source doesn't slip through.