The panels do not have to accept channels formally satisfying the Level 1 criteria if the scientific quality or relevance is questionable from the point of view of Finnish research. For this reason, questionable ('predatory') open access journals or other channels that publish scientific papers for payment without proper quality evaluation can be placed on Level 0.
The Secretariat will warn the panellists of the journals on the Cabell’s list and those removed from the DOAJ, as well as other suspicious publication channels that meet the characteristics of predatory journals (see 4.2.5.1), or the publication channel publishes a particularly large number of special issues and/or its publication volume is growing rapidly. The Secretariat will also bring to the panels for re-evaluation cases where the JUFO level is 1-3 but the publication channel is on the Cabell’s list or level 0 or X in Norway.