Signs a journal or publisher might be "predatory":

• The journal is not listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
• It's not listed in Ulrichs (Tufts login required), which is an authoritative source on publisher information, including Open Access titles

• The publisher is not a member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA)
• It's not widely available within major databases (more information about this on the Analyzing Journals page)
• The publisher is listed on Cabell's "blacklist" (Tufts login required)

Visit the website for the journal. Some red flags include:

• You don't recognize previously published authors or members of the editorial board
• The journal isn't affiliated with a University or scholarly organization you are familiar with
• You can't easily identify if they have author processing fees and/or how much they cost.
• The journal doesn't appear professional - look for an impact factor, an ISSN, DOIs for individual articles, and easy to find contact information