Warning against dubious publishers and publication platforms
Recently, there has been an increasing number of reports regarding suspected predatory publishing practices. The term “predatory publishing” refers to various shady business practices and deceptive activities in the publishing industry. Some of these cases involve the publisher “Gavin Publishers,” which the University of Göttingen classifies as a predatory publisher. This classification is based, among other things, on unverifiable journal impact factors.
Therefore, the University of Göttingen would like to encourage all authors to carefully review the journals and publishers they are considering for publication. For example, pay attention to whether the publisher clearly communicates relevant information, whether their products are indexed in recognized databases, or if the publisher or journal is already known to you or your colleagues. Support is available through the checklists from the “Think! Check! Submit!” initiative (https://thinkchecksubmit.org/). If you have any questions or need help with this assessment, feel free to contact oa@sub.uni-goettingen.de at any time.
Further information can be found in the `PublizierenNews’ newsletter of the University of Göttingen or this link. There you can also find further important information of topics related to publishing.