Publishers and journals categorized as "predatory" are uninterested in sharing properly cited and reviewed work or respecting the rights of authors; they are interested solely in profit and often ask authors to pay huge publishing or presenting fees. Some predatory journals claim to be legitimately Open Access, which results in scholars sometimes conflating OA with predatory practices. 

Predatory journals are the product of predatory publishers, institutions that are unethical in their publishing practices by not following proper academic and ethical standards for the publication of scholarly work. This includes lack of proper peer review, proper citation, and the charging of exorbitant fees for publications that will never be reviewed or published in the way that the publisher proposes.

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Evaluating Scholarly Journals Infographic by Allen Press via FrontMatter (CC BY ND NC 3.0) 

• Legitimate vs Illegitimate Publishers 
• Case Study 
• Resources at Pitt

Guide creators and editors: 

• Lauren Collister 
• Kiana Jones 
• Aimee Jenkins