During the publication process, one important part is choosing where to present the research results. It is no longer just a matter of selecting a quality journal; scientists can now also become victims when choosing a conference to present at or attend. The gradual push for greater openness in publishing is also increasing the potential for unfair practices among publishers of scholarly books.

The I Know Where I Publish portal, which is managed by the Central Library in cooperation with the Association of Libraries of Czech Universities, can be an excellent tool. It is based on a loose translation of the international campaign Think. Check. Submit. combined with information from the project Think. Check. Attend.

One of the first to shine light on the unfair practices of journals and publishers was the librarian of the University of Colorado, Jeffrey Beall, who began working on the Beall List of Potential Predatory Journals and Publishers. The website of the original list is no longer available, but there is a website at https://beallslist.net/ which is functional and where you can find the original list (from the end of 2016) updated with new cases. The site is maintained, in his own words, by a postdoctoral student from a European university.

The list itself is probably a bit obsolete nowadays, but it was an important step in raising interest in this issue. The very existence of the blacklist seems to be the main problem, as it is quite difficult to be deleted from the list after a possibly misguided inclusion. The list includes journals and publishers based on publicly declared criteria, but the individual cases are not specifically justified.

Nowadays, it also appears that the boundary between journals is very thin, as shown by the quite controversial publishing house MDPI – many scientists and institutions will warn you against publishing there.