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Librarian removes controversial list of "predatory" journals and publishers

insidehighered.com

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Re: Librarian removes controversial list of "predatory" journals and publishers

#11
> OMICS International, a publisher Beall has previously described as “the worst of the worst,” in 2013 threatened to sue Beall, seeking $1 billion in damages.

$1 billion in damages? Against a librarian? It seems like OMICS International has confirmed they're the worst of the worst.

Re: Librarian removes controversial list of "predatory" journals and publishers

#12
post #5
post #2

Note that "open access" in the context of academic publishing is a weasel word: it means that the submitters of the article have to pay for it instead of the readers. This can be quite expensive, hence the invention of predatory journals who want the money.

Uh, submitters typically pay for all submissions, either in cash or in the requirement to sign over copyright to the journal. Open Access is a trend to combatting the walled garden model of scientific publishing, and is perfectly legitimate. Scammy journals are taking advantage of authors' needs to publish a lot of work in order to advance in their field. They are "open access" not because open access is a scam, but…

"Uh, submitters typically pay for all submissions, either in cash or in the requirement to sign over copyright to the journal."

Yes. Even with "reputable" journals, the revenue flow often works like this:

1) The researcher does the research and writes the paper (usually at public expense). 2) The researcher submits the paper to a journal (often along with a hefty "publication fee"), where it is edited and peer-reviewed for "free" (i.e., also at public expense) by researchers at other institutions. 3) The researcher signs over the copyright to the journal. 4) The journal then charges other researchers, libraries, and the public (who have basically footed all the bills so far) another hefty fee if they want to read the paper.

That's the standard model. Beall's list was of journals that were abusive even by those standards.

Re: Librarian removes controversial list of "predatory" journals and publishers

#13
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh, submitters typically pay for all submissions, either in cash or in the requirement to sign over copyright to the journal. Open Access is a trend to combatting the walled garden model of scientific publishing, and is perfectly legitimate. Scammy journals are taking advantage of authors' needs to publish a lot of work in order to advance in their field. They are "open access" not because open access is a scam, but…

"Uh, submitters typically pay for all submissions, either in cash or in the requirement to sign over copyright to the journal." Yes. Even with "reputable" journals, the revenue flow often works like this: 1) The researcher does the research and writes the paper (usually at public expense). 2) The researcher submits the paper to a journal (often along with a hefty "publication fee"), where it is edited and peer-review…

I have never submitted a paper anywhere that had a publication fee. You generally pay to submit xor you pay to read, the and case is a distinct minority.

Re: Librarian removes controversial list of "predatory" journals and publishers

#16
post #2

Note that "open access" in the context of academic publishing is a weasel word: it means that the submitters of the article have to pay for it instead of the readers. This can be quite expensive, hence the invention of predatory journals who want the money.

While this is true on its face, any OA publisher worth their salt offers a fee waiver program, and the expection from Day 1 of OA has been that these costs should be baked into grant applications and funding requests. Many funding bodies and institutions take care of this for you, having OA funds and assistance to take care of OA fees and to help direct publishing scientists to non-predatory publishers (Elsevier in p…

The ones who offered fee waiver programs weren't on his list, because they weren't predatory. For example, PNAS may not be a great journal, but it's OpenAcess and not predatory... hundreds of others with very similar names to high profile journals and fake conferences are predatory.

I wouldn't say that it's rare to have to pay (even for a non-free journal)... in fact it may be more common to pay just based on the number of predatory journals and their published articles, it just isn't ethical (either for the publisher or often for the writer).

Re: Librarian removes controversial list of "predatory" journals and publishers

#17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Uh, submitters typically pay for all submissions, either in cash or in the requirement to sign over copyright to the journal." Yes. Even with "reputable" journals, the revenue flow often works like this: 1) The researcher does the research and writes the paper (usually at public expense). 2) The researcher submits the paper to a journal (often along with a hefty "publication fee"), where it is edited and peer-review…

I have never submitted a paper anywhere that had a publication fee. You generally pay to submit xor you pay to read, the and case is a distinct minority.

Maybe it depends on the field? Every journal I've submitted to (chemistry/physical chemistry) only asked for money after peer-review and acceptance. And these are the well-respected journals in the field.

Re: Librarian removes controversial list of "predatory" journals and publishers

#18
http://academictorrents.com/

I really like what these guys are trying to do and it goes hand in hand with the topic here. It's 100% legal. Please help spread the word. I contribute the the swarm whenever I can since I don't have bandwidth limits on my household connection. Comcast put 1 TB monthly caps on ~20 states last year, but the northeast is thankfully too competitive to let that fly, especially with Fios also being available here.

Re: Librarian removes controversial list of "predatory" journals and publishers

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Uh, submitters typically pay for all submissions, either in cash or in the requirement to sign over copyright to the journal." Yes. Even with "reputable" journals, the revenue flow often works like this: 1) The researcher does the research and writes the paper (usually at public expense). 2) The researcher submits the paper to a journal (often along with a hefty "publication fee"), where it is edited and peer-review…

I have never submitted a paper anywhere that had a publication fee. You generally pay to submit xor you pay to read, the and case is a distinct minority.

You can find a number of reputable journals that charge publication fees, yet still don't make the articles open access.

Google ["page fees"], and you'll find a whole bunch of them.

Re: Librarian removes controversial list of "predatory" journals and publishers

#20
post #6

TL;DR What Jeffrey Beall was doing could be described as one honest man trying to fight the predatory publishing mafia, by nothing else but exposing their misdeeds. Unfortunately, the mafia managed to silence him. For those who do not know what predatory publishing is, it is basically the "business" similar to diploma mills: they issue crap credentials (by publishing "scientific articles") for a "modest" fee to peopl…

It mostly happens in developing nations...

You wish. You see the same crap in regional universities - faculty must do "research" with undergrads and "publish" the stuff. Back then you had campus journals run by students, but now you have predatory journals. What you don't have is administration with a clue.

Administration entered working life sometime in the early 1990s with maybe one or two papers out of their PhD, they worked their way up the ranks and have no notion what they are doing. They may even think that someone who paid OMICS Open Chemistry to print the paper they wrote about the fluff in their belly button did good work. They may even require n papers for tenure. OMICS will provide! Junior faculty need tenure too!

The axe can't fall soon enough. You can't trust academia to police itself, we need academic administrators on a separate career track to police the bloody lot.

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