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There is a useful checklist provided by Butler, D. (2013) Investigating journals: the dark side of publishing. Nature. 495 (7442) :

Buyer beware: A checklist to identify reputable publishers

How to perform due diligence before submitting to a journal or publisher:

• Check that the publisher provides full, verifiable contact information, including address, on the journal site. Be cautious of those that provide only web contact forms.
• Check that a journal's editorial board lists recognized experts with full affiliations. Contact some of them and ask about their experience with the journal or publisher.
• Check that the journal prominently displays its policy for author fees.
• Be wary of e-mail invitations to submit to journals or to become editorial board members.
• Read some of the journal's published articles and assess their quality. Contact past authors to ask about their experience.
• Check that a journal's peer-review process is clearly described and try to confirm that a claimed impact factor is correct.
• Find out whether the journal is a member of an industry association that vets its members, such as the Directory of Open Access Journals () or the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association ().
• Use common sense, as you would when shopping online: if something looks fishy, proceed with caution.

See also:

• A developing portal of educational resources relating to predatory publishing at (initiated by the authors of the 2019 Nature paper "Predatory journals: no definition, no defence" )
• How to Spot Predatory Publishers for further information on predatory publishing

If you are approached by a journal and aren’t sure if they are reputable then contact: openaccess@stir.ac.uk