Open Science
What Happens to Your Article If a Journal Shuts Down — Ours Included
The question every author should ask a publisher, answered directly: our preservation gap stated without euphemism, and three steps that keep your pap...
Directive Publications · Author & Reviewer ResourcesOpen Access · Peer-Reviewed
Trusted Research · Since 2026
Directive Academy
Guides on peer review, research integrity & scholarly publishing — for authors, reviewers and editors
Research Integrity
Is This Journal Email Genuine? What We Send and Never Send
A full inventory of publisher-to-author correspondence, the solicitation patterns that never come from us, and...
Directive Editorial Team · 7 min
Research Integrity
Why We Do Not Send Unsolicited Journal Invitations
The economics behind cold journal emails, an incentive table keyed to when a publisher takes payment, a declin...
Directive Editorial Team · 7 min
Research Integrity
Paper Mills and Authorship for Sale: The Offers to Refuse
The paper-mill marketplace from the buyer side: five offer types in one table, the wording that gives each awa...
Directive Editorial Team · 7 min
“Legitimate journals are transparent about their fees, peer review and editorial board — verify all three before you submit.”
— Directive Publications Editorial Standards
More from the Academy
Browse all guides →
Research Integrity
How to Report a Problem With an Article We Published
Found an error in something we published? Send the article title, DOI, the specific concern and what you want done. This is the route that exists toda...
Editor Resources
Manuscript Transfer Between Journals: What to Insist On
Rejected, then offered a move to another journal? Pin down the consent, the fee, the review standard and the reviewer reports in writing before you re...
Scientific Writing
How to Publish a Clinical Audit or QI Project Using SQUIRE 2.0
You finished the audit and nobody told you what to do next. The cycle that makes it publishable, an 18-item SQUIRE 2.0 structure map, and the approval...
Scientific Writing
Checking Your Reference List Before You Submit a Manuscript
A reference manager formats entries; it does not confirm they are real. A seven-pass routine verifies every identifier, every claim and every in-text...
Scientific Writing
From Conference Abstract to Full Paper: Is It Duplicate Publication?
Your poster is in a meeting supplement with a DOI. Here is the line between preliminary reporting and a genuine duplicate, plus the wording and citati...
Scientific Writing
The Journal Submission Checklist: What You Need Before You Start
A submission is not a form but a list of documents. Here is the full inventory — files, author details, declarations and approvals — and which of them...
Research Integrity
Getting Institutional Clearance to Publish Hospital Data
Your ethics committee cannot speak for the hospital board. A clinician's guide to the third permission, the one that can surface only after the manusc...
Scientific Writing
RECIST and CTCAE Reporting: Tumour Response and Toxicity
Two oncology vocabularies, two version traps. What RECIST measures, what a CTCAE grade will not tell you about cause, and a fill-in template for the r...
Publishing your research?
Directive Publications is an open-access publisher — every article peer-reviewed, Crossref-registered, and free to read under CC BY 4.0.