Submit your research to this new journal by 15 February 2021.

I’m happy to announce a new journal on the scene: Authenticity Studies, hosted by the University of Padova and published by the Padova University Press. The journal will be published once a year and “was born from the desire to create a multidisciplinary and highly qualified place for comparison and discussion between archaeologists, art historians, archaeometers, jurists, and museum professionals to promote reflections on the practices of attribution and authentication.” Long story short, a journal focused on interdisciplinary authenticity issues was needed, and here it is!

See the call for papers here: http://www.anonymousswisscollector.com/wp-content/uploads/Authenticity-Studies_Call-for-Papers.pdf

Now is a good time to talk about what makes a “good” journal: what kind of journals I (or you) should submit to, what kind of journals I (or you) should put your name on (I’m on the editorial board of this one), and what kind of journals to avoid. There are a lot of predatory journals out there and even some very experienced scholars are suckered by them. Still others fall into a grey area: they aren’t quite predatory, but they display certain questionable characteristics which one might want to avoid.

This is my collected wisdom, folks, not anything systematic. I am not going to get into open access beyond “no one should make you pay”. I know that some defined non-OA journals as “bad”, but I’m defining “bad” as either “you’re being directly scammed” and “you are hurting your career”. Let’s talk OA another day.

Bad Journal (AVOID!)

• It’s on the predatory publishing list: https://predatoryjournals.com/journals/
• The journal’s focus covers way too much to be realistic
• You must pay to publish in it, there is no exceptions or other options
• The papers aren’t available online, even to those with institutional affiliations and logins
• You were solicited by an email from someone claiming to have read INSERT NAME OF YOUR PREVIOUS PUBLICATION HERE and inviting you to submit
• It isn’t peer reviewed

Publishing in a bad journal is a complete waste of money and will not help your career at all. It does not get your work out there to anyone.

Grey Journal (Caution)

• You’ve never heard of it before. Time to do some research online, and you might find it is a “Bad Journal”, see above
• You’ve never heard of anyone on the editorial board
• It runs on a “pay for open access” model, but offer discounts (but not waivers) to those without institutional funding for open access; really this might be more a “bad” if there are no full waivers.
• They are run by one of these big “Open Access” for-profit outfits that have a whole lot of journals in their stable.
• They expect peer review back in less than 1 month’s time (check their peer review policy)

Publishing in one of these grey area journals is usually okay enough, and they might be a good place to get out some of your middling work. You know, work that makes a point or presents some data that needs to be out there but that isn’t top journal quality. By all means don’t pay to publish in one of these journals. If they want money from you, move along.

Good Journal (Click Submit)

• The movers and shakers in your field publish in this journal
• It is peer reviewed
• People without institutional funding to pay for open access can publish, either via waivers or via making the choice not to publish open access
• The journal is hosted by a reputable university, professional organisation, or equivalent
• The journal is hosted by one of the big publishers (yes, I know, I know, let’s not get in to that now)
• The journal has extensive guidelines for publishing and clearly defined area of focus; the journal has a code of ethics or equivalent
• Peer review is taken seriously, peer reviewers have a month or more to respond; check the peer review guidelines
• Bonus (but don’t expect this): they are offering you money to publish. This rarely, but does happen. If someone actually wants to pay you for your work, take it. I’ve only ever been offered money by legit outfits.

So, looking at “Authenticity Studies”, despite being very new, it ranks as a “good journal”. While no one has published in it yet, the editorial board is made up of numerous people who are good and I trust. It is peer reviewed and there is no cost to publish. It is hosted by a University, it has publishing guidelines and a code of ethics. I do not know yet what the peer review guidelines are, but they are likely to be acceptable if they resemble the publishing guidelines and code of ethics. Click Submit for Authenticity Studies.