An Open Access journal has invited me to publish. How do I know if it is a reputable journal?

With the rapid growth of OA, "parasitic" or "predatory" OA journals exploit the author-pays model for their own benefit. Authors, typically solicited by email, are invited to submit articles that are systematically accepted in exchange for publication fees or APCs, regardless of the scientific quality of the work submitted. It should be noted that this problem only arises for Gold OA journals. 

 Jeffrey Beall, of the University of Colorado, created a site in 2008, scholarlyoa.com, which was closed in January 2017 and contained a list of potentially predatory journals based on 52 criteria. This list was used as a standard until its disappearance. An archived version is still available , and other sites have tried to fill the gap . It is also possible to consult the DOAJ to assess the credibility of an OA journal. 

 An intersectoral initiative, Think. Check. Submit. , offers a simple checklist to help researchers evaluate the reliability of a journal or publisher. It is a particularly useful tool for avoiding predatory journals. 

 Another relevant resource is Compass to Publish , developed by the University of Liège. This interactive tool allows you to evaluate a journal by answering a series of structured questions (transparency, editorial board, peer review process, etc.) and provides clear decision-making guidance for researchers. 

 In practice, certain warning signs should raise attention: persistent solicitations, abnormally short publication timelines, lack of transparency about fees, a questionable editorial board, or absence of indexing in recognised databases. Conversely, a reputable journal provides clear information about its evaluation process, editorial policies, and any fees.