An invitation to submit tells you nothing about a journal. What matters is whether every claim in the email survives a check made outside the email.
Why an invitation proves nothing on its own
If you have published even one paper, your address is probably on mailing lists you never joined. Some of the calls for papers that arrive are genuine. Many are not. The hard part is that both kinds use the same words: "special issue", "esteemed researcher", "peer reviewed", "indexed".
Being invited is not a problem in itself. The Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, maintained jointly by COPE, DOAJ, OASPA and WAME, accept that journals market themselves. They say direct marketing, "including solicitation of manuscripts", should be "appropriate, well targeted, and unobtrusive". They also say a journal's name should not mislead authors about its origin, scope or association.
That gives you a useful test. A genuine call for papers is relevant to your work, and every claim in it can be checked somewhere else. Call for papers spam emails fail one or both. Deceptive solicitation has consequences in law as well as in reputation: in 2019 a US federal court ordered publisher OMICS to pay more than $50 million in a case brought by the Federal Trade Commission, and limited how it could present impact factor claims (Retraction Watch report).
Red flags inside the email
None of these signals proves fraud alone, and a legitimate small journal may show one. Several together mean you should not reply until you have run the check in the next section.
| Signal in the email | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Praise for a named paper, with nothing specific about it | Mail-merge tools insert titles taken from public databases; a real editor can say why your work fits |
| Scope far from your field, or extremely broad | A well-targeted call matches what you work on |
| Short deadlines, "final call" sent repeatedly | Pressure discourages checking |
| Free webmail sender, or a domain that differs from the journal's | Journals normally write from their own or their publisher's domain |
| Indexing logos or an "impact factor" with no source | The Journal Impact Factor comes only from Clarivate; other "impact" numbers are not it |
| Promised acceptance or a fixed publication time | Peer review outcomes and timing cannot be guaranteed in advance |
| Fees vague, missing, or revealed only after acceptance | The transparency principles expect fees to be clear before you submit |
| Submission by replying with an attachment | Worth checking: established journals commonly use an online submission system |
| Emails continue after you asked to be removed | Ignores the "unobtrusive" standard |
A predatory journal email often stacks the flattering and the urgent together, because both work against slow reading. Our guide to 12 red flags of predatory journals covers the warning signs on the journal side.
How to verify a journal invitation in six steps
Run these in order. If a step fails, you can usually stop there.
- Find the journal yourself. Search for the title in a database you trust or on the publisher's own website, not through the email's links. Write down the official domain and the ISSN. Check the ISSN on the ISSN Portal and confirm it belongs to that title.
- Compare the sender with the journal. The address should use the journal or publisher's real domain. Your mail client can also tell you whether the message is authenticated: Gmail, for example, shows "mailed by" and "signed by" details and flags unauthenticated messages with a question mark. Authentication only shows which domain sent the message, not that the domain belongs to a real journal, so it complements step 1 rather than replacing it.
- Confirm the call exists. On the official journal site, look for the special issue page or call. The title, deadline and guest editors should match the email. A call that appears only in your inbox, or on a site with a slightly different address, deserves suspicion. Cloned sites are covered in our guide to hijacked journals.
- Check indexing and metric claims at the source. Look the journal up in the database it claims: Clarivate's Master Journal List for Web of Science, the NLM Catalog for MEDLINE, DOAJ for open-access listing. For medical journals, see how to check PubMed, PMC and MEDLINE status.
- Check the editors and the fit. Named guest editors should be identifiable researchers in the field, at the institutions given. Then ask honestly whether the journal's aims and scope match your manuscript. A real journal that is a poor fit is still the wrong place for your paper.
- Read fees and terms before submitting. Find the article processing charge, any submission fee, waiver policy and licence on the official website. Do not pay an invoice, or sign an agreement, that the website does not explain.
The Think. Check. Submit. checklist asks related questions about the journal itself and is a good second pass once the email has survived these six steps.
What a genuine call for papers usually looks like
Legitimate invitations vary, but they tend to share some features you can look for:
- They come from the journal's or publisher's own domain and link to pages on that domain.
- The special issue has its own page on the journal site, with a defined topic, deadline and named guest editors.
- Submission goes through the journal's normal system, with the normal peer review.
- Fees, or the absence of fees, are stated on the website.
- The topic actually relates to your published work.
A real call can still be a poor choice. Special issues raise their own questions about who controls editorial decisions and how thoroughly papers are reviewed, so read the special issue page as carefully as the email.
Conference invitations and editorial board offers
The same routine applies to two related emails early-career researchers often receive.
Conference invitations. Check that the conference has a site you can find independently, an organising body you can identify, and speakers who list it on their own pages. Be wary of an invitation to speak at a meeting outside your field.
Editorial board or reviewer offers. Being invited to join a board without having published in or reviewed for the journal is unusual. Before accepting, ask who else serves on the board, and check whether those people list the role themselves. Your name on a board lends the journal credibility, so treat the request as carefully as a submission.
What to do with an email that fails
- Do not reply or click links. Use your email program's report spam or block option instead.
- Report phishing. If the message asks for login details or payment, follow your institution's IT reporting process.
- Warn your group. Co-authors and students on the same papers probably received the same email.
- If you have already submitted, stop any payment, do not sign a licence or copyright agreement, request withdrawal in writing and keep every message and invoice. Ask your library or research office for help.
Quick checklist before you respond
- I found the journal without using the email's links
- The sender's domain matches the journal or publisher's real domain
- The call appears on the official journal website with the same details
- Indexing and metric claims check out in the actual databases
- The guest editors are real researchers in the field
- The scope genuinely fits my manuscript
- Fees, waivers and licence terms are published on the website
If every box is ticked, the invitation is probably genuine and the remaining question is fit. Directive Publications publishes its author guidelines and peer review process on its own site, so you can run the same checks on us before you submit.
Frequently asked questions
Are all call for papers emails spam?
No. Legitimate journals and publishers do send calls for papers, especially for special issues. The publishing principles maintained by COPE, DOAJ, OASPA and WAME expect such marketing to be appropriate, well targeted and unobtrusive. The question is whether the email is relevant to your work and whether its claims hold up when you check them independently.
How can I verify a journal invitation email?
Do not use the links in the message. Find the journal yourself through a database or the publisher's own site, confirm the call is listed there, and check the sender's domain against the journal's real domain. Then confirm any indexing or metric claims at the source and read the fees before submitting.
Why does a predatory journal email praise my previous paper?
Mass mailing tools can insert a paper title and author name harvested from public databases, which makes a generic email look personal. Praise that names your paper but says nothing specific about its content or method is a common sign of an automated message. A relevant editor can usually explain why your work fits the journal.
Should I click the unsubscribe link in a suspicious email?
It is safer to use your email program's report spam or block option instead. A link in an untrusted message may lead to a site you cannot vouch for, and responding may confirm that your address is active. For messages that look like phishing, follow your institution's IT reporting process.
What should I do if I already submitted after a fake journal invitation email?
Stop any payment you have not yet made and do not sign a copyright or licence agreement. Write to the journal asking to withdraw the manuscript, keep copies of all correspondence and invoices, and ask your library or research office for help. If you paid by card, ask your card issuer about dispute options.