From: Michael Bisaccio <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2017 14:22:06 +0000

As part of the Cabell’s team (so, admittedly biased), I can say that
every effort has been put into building the Blacklist with two core
tenets in mind: objectivity and transparency.  Toward this end, we
have several full-time project managers working almost exclusively on
the investigation, reporting, and publication of the Blacklist. As
previously stated, in order to effectively and responsibly publish
something like this, a great deal of resources must be devoted to its
production.

The goal of the Blacklist is not to punish or “call-out” journals that
are simply new or low quality, but rather provide information on those
that are engaged in deceptive or “predatory” practices.  We have no
agendas or ulterior motives. We do have detailed reports, listing the
number and nature of violations for every journal that our specialists
have evaluated and flagged as a threat.

We will also be hosting a webinar on Monday, July 17 at 10 am CST to
provide a look at the Whitelist and Blacklist – along with our new
website and several new features. This will be a great chance to see
the Blacklist up close and get an idea of the positive impact we know
it will have on the academic community.

To register for the webinar, visit:

https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/15775/269309?utm_source=Cabell%27s+International&utm_medium=brighttalk&utm_campaign=269309

Thanks.

Michael Bisaccio
Cabells
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-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Anderson <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2017 01:17:33 +0000

I think the issues with Beall’s List arose from two fundamental problems:

1. Beall was one person, managing the list as a professional service
in his spare time. I don’t think there’s any way for a list like his
to be effectively and responsibly managed on that basis.

2. Beall had a clear animus towards open access, which he expressed
explicitly and publicly. This, I think, led him to be less than
compellingly motivated to be fair and scrupulous in his dealings with
the publishers he blacklisted. Now, just to be clear: I don’t think he
was dishonest. But I don’t think he felt very motivated to (for
example) be clear and transparent with the appeals process (such as it
was), and he certainly was not good about saying specifically why
particular publishers were blacklisted. To some degree this may have
been a function of problem #1 above, but I think his antagonism
towards OA publishing generally contributed to this second problem
also.

I don’t expect Cabell’s to suffer from either of those problems.
Cabell’s has (to my knowledge) no anti-OA agenda, and they have paid
staff who will be managing the list and who I hope and expect will
manage it responsibly and fairly. (And, of course, the fact that
they’ll be charging for access to it means that they’ll have resources
to maintain the service.)

I’ve heard people grumble about the fact that Cabell’s will be
charging, but honestly, I’m not sure this is a service that can be
provided effectively without a revenue stream. It would be lovely if
it could be free, but you could say the same about health care and
food. Free is a great price if you can get it — but when it’s the
price offered for our own labor we tend not to like it so much.

That’s just my $.02.

---
Rick Anderson
Assoc. Dean for Collections & Scholarly Communication Marriott
Library, University of Utah
Desk: (801) 587-9989
Cell: (801) 721-1687
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On 7/13/17, 4:27 PM, "LibLicense-L Discussion Forum on behalf of
LIBLICENSE" <[log in to unmask] on behalf of
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>From: "Sowards, Steve" <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2017 12:42:59 +0000
>
>Given the widespread interest on this list in Beall's list and the
>factors that led to its demise, I wonder if anyone has comments or
>information about this new for-fee alternative from Cabell?
>
>http://www.universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/u-s-company-launches-
>new-blacklist-deceptive-academic-journals/
>
>What prevents the same limitations, cautions and misunderstandings from
>playing out once again?
>
>Steven Sowards
>Associate Director for Collections
>Michigan State University Libraries
>366 W. Circle Drive
>East Lansing MI 48824