• Publication is guaranteed
• The time of submission to publication is unexpectedly short
• The peer-review process is unclear, lacking information, or not apparent
• There is minimal information about the various steps in the process from submission to publication
• The journal requires copyright transfer during the submission process. Copyright is typically transferred after the acceptance of manuscript. Most open access journals will apply a Creative Commons (CC) licence to the research that allows for reuse; in many cases, the author will retain copyright. If an open journal is not using CC licenses, terms of reuse should be clear;
• The journal does not follow a regular publication schedule

• APC payment is required before acceptance. APCs are paid post-acceptance not pre-publication. You should not be asked to pay for an APC before the peer-review process begins. These charges should be clearly listed on the publisher's website
• It is unclear what fees will be charged. In some fields, a modest submission or membership fee is charged at the time of manuscript submission. These fees fund editorial or peer-review processes. In other cases, there are post-acceptance fees, which might include page, colour, or figure charges. The amount and purpose of any additional fees should be clearly outlined on a journal's website or policies. Look for unconventional charges like 'handling fees'. If you are not sure, check with colleagues about accepted practices

• The journal's name is easily confused with another better-known journal in its field. Confirm that the publication's ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) matches the title and country of publication that is listed at ISSN.org
• The publisher cannot be easily identified or contacted. Consider looking for contact information including a telephone number and mailing address and check to see that the contact information aligns with the journal's other claims (i.e., the telephone number area code matches where the journal is based, the mailing address is not a private residence). Most publishers will have a general email account you can contact; be wary of email addresses that may be non-professional or have no affiliation with the journal (i.e.: a Gmail or Yahoo address)
• The journal website looks amateurish, outdated or unprofessional. You may find that the journal's website is poorly designed and difficult to navigate, including dead links, as well as spelling and grammatical errors. While many legitimate journals may be poorly funded and lacking professional websites, errors and broken links are indicators that warrant a closer look at the journal

• The publisher is not a member of a recognized scholarly organization.
• Deceptive publishers may falsely represent their affiliations. It is best to verify stated affiliations via the website of the organization a journal claims to be affiliated with. The following are some recognized organizations: 
  • COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics)  
  • DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals)

• The journal lacks a well-defined scope, subject area, or mission. Journals generally have a clearly defined scope and focus on a fixed set of topics. 
• The articles published do not match the title and stated scope and/or the journal title. For example, a nursing journal that publishes geology papers. 

• The journal is not indexed where it claims to be nor where you would expect to find the subject content. This is verifiable information. Consider the databases that you use to find research (e.g., Scopus, Web of Science, Sociological Abstracts, or Medline, etc.). Is the journal included in these indexes? Note that Google Scholar, SHERPA/RoMEO, ORCID and scholarly networking sites like ResearchGate are not indexes.
• Claims about impact factors are not verifiable.
• Deceptive publishers may list fraudulent metrics such as the “Global Impact Factor” (GIF), Index Copernicus, or “Universal Impact Factor” (UIF). These are not based on recognized methodologies.
• Recognized metrics include the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) and SJR, among others. Check Journal Citation Reports and the SJR website to verify this information. Not all journals are indexed in these resources and newer journals may not have journal level metrics available.
• The journal website does not provide access to previously published volumes or has volumes that that are incomplete.

It can be difficult to verify who is on an editorial board, so it is good to cross-check to ensure the information is accurate. Warning signs include:

• Members of the editorial board do not mention the journal on their own websites or public CVs
• There is no information about the editor or editorial board on the journal’s website.