Journal Impact Factor refers to the frequency by which an article in a journal may be cited in a given year. A higher impact factor is an indication that a journal is more influential in its field of study.
Predatory journals often publish fake impact factors, or do not list one at all. You can check a journal title's impact factor via Journal Citation Reports, available through Web of Science.
In 2010, a librarian named Jeffrey Beall published a list of "Potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open-access publishers." While Beall took down this list in early 2017, the content is archived via an anonymous source. As it is no longer being updated, please use caution when consulting this list.
Not sure where to begin evaluating potentially predatory publishing opportunities?
Think. Check. Submit. provides a framework and checklist to critically evaluate journals. You can find this tool at: https://thinkchecksubmit.org/
Cabell's Scholarly Analytics is an evaluation source for open access journals. Journals featured on the Whitelist have passed Cabell's evaluation criteria, while those on the Blacklist have been flagged for predatory practices. Complete evaluation criteria for each journal, as well as publication metrics, are available for each title.
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
Open Access Scholarly Publisher's Association (OASPA)
Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
Journals Online (INASP)
African Journals Online (AJOL)