Choose the right publication channel and avoid fraud

Before publishing, you should consider among others in which journal you would like to publish, check the requirements of research funders, and make sure to avoid predatory journals.

Target group​

  • Who is the target group of your publication?
  • Where do your peers publish?
  • Where do relevant experts in your field publish?
  • What are the relevant journals with regards to the research findings you want to publish?​​

Definition of academic publication

Open Access requirements

Nord University’s Open Access (OA) policy (PDF) provides guidelines on how Nord University’s researchers are to make their scholarly journal articles openly accessible. Furthermore, the Norwegian government and several research funders have requirements for Open Access. These requirements can be met by publishing Open Access on the publisher’s platform and/or by self-archiving in an institutional repository.

Open publishing on the publisher’s platform may involve paying a publication fee (Article Processing Charge, APC); if the journal is a pure OA journal or part of a OA publishing agreement, Nord University may cover the costs. To find out whether Nord University supports OA publishing in your chosen journal, please see our webpage on Open Access publishing.​​​

Avoid fraud

In recent years, there have been several incidents of fraud through so-called predatory journals and publishers. Many Open Access journals cover their costs through publishing fees (Article Processing Charges, APC). Fraudsters exploit this by establishing predatory journals that charge fees for services they do not provide (e.g. adequate peer-review). Recently fraudsters have also started organizing so-called ‘academic ’ conferences. All three types of fraud (journals, publishers, conferences) have in common a lack of quality assurance in research.

    • Check the channel register of the Directorate for Higher Education and Skills (HK-dir) whose journals have been quality assured by a committee of experts. Journals should be ranked level 1 or 2. Please note that it is possible to submit journals for possible inclusion in the database. In this case, experts consider journals on your behalf
    • Check the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) where journals have been quality assessed by members of the DOAJ staff
    • Ask you colleagues: Do they have experience publishing in or reading a given journal?
    • Check out University of Liège's Compass to Publish (beta version), which aims to help you assess the authenticity of Open Access journals
    • Check the website Think. Check. Submit for more comprehensive information on predatory journals
    • Many fraudsters are very active contacting researchers with offers of publications
    • Search online for the title of the journal and add the term ‘predatory’
    • Check the channel register of the Directorate for Higher Education and Skills (HK-dir) whose publishers have been quality assured by a committee of experts. Publishers should be ranked level 1 or 2. Please note that it is possible to submit journals for possible inclusion in the database. In this case, experts consider journals on your behalf
    • Check the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) - DOAB has an overview (although not complete) of serious publishers publishing OA books
    • Ask you colleagues: Do they have experience publishing or reading books by a given publisher?
    • Check the website Think. Check. Submit for more comprehensive information on predatory publishers
    • Many fraudsters are very active contacting researchers with offers of publications
    • Search online for the publisher and add the term ‘predatory’
    • Ask you colleagues: Do they have experience participating at a given conference?
    • Check the website Think. Check. Attend for more information on how to detect fraudulent conferences
    • Many fraudsters are very active contacting researchers to offer participation.
    • Search online for the name of the conference, organizer, etc.