From: Jan Velterop <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2012 08:34:53 +0000

Though the nice thing about OA articles is that they can reside in
many places at once, and so the chances of those articles getting lost
are much lower than if and when a traditional journal or publisher
disappears. Some traditional publishers have made 'living wills', but
not all. And if they haven't, there may be a ©-orphan problem when
they go under. No such problem with OA articles.

The fear of 'predatory' OA journals is a bit of a red herring. There
are also 'predatory' traditional journals. The difference is the prey.
For author-side paid OA journals it's the author; for subscription
journals it's the library AND the author (who may find that his/her
paper has a circulation of only a few hundred, or even less).

So for authors it always is 'caveat emptor', whether publishing in an
OA journal or a subscription journal.

Jan Velterop

               – –  • • •   • • •  – –
**************************************
Drs Johannes (Jan) Velterop, CEO
Academic Concept Knowledge Ltd. (AQnowledge)
Skype: Villavelius
Email: [log in to unmask]
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aqnowledge.com


On 13 Mar 2012, at 08:06, LIBLICENSE wrote:

From: Wilhelmina Randtke <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:41:17 -0500

Yes, at the journal level the poor quality journals will die.  The
tragedy will be the quality articles that go down with the poor
journals, and are lost.  But that's been said before.

-Wilhelmina Randtke


On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 2:48 AM, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From: Jan Velterop <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2012 22:06:07 +0000


Isn't the emergence of all these new journals more like a Cambrian
Explosion, precipitated by a fundamental change in the environment?
Evolution will take care of it. The fittest for purpose will survive.
The others will disappear.

Jan Velterop


On 9 Mar 2012, at 19:22, LIBLICENSE wrote:

From: Ina Smith <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2012 22:52:35 +0200

Dear all

This matter came to our attention as well when one of your researchers
approached us for funding from our OA fund to publish in one of Mr
Beall's so-called predatory journals. I was in contact with DOAJ (the
journal in question was also listed there). According to DOAJ they
have their own set of criteria to include journal titles, and our
University regard DOAJ as the most authoritative list out there.

The Bealls list unfortunately does not include real evidence. There
are more lists on predatory author-pays-publishers but they have
better evidence than Beall.

According to DOAJ it did occur previously that they had to remove all
journals from a publisher after evidence of fraud.

We have - in order to solve the request we had - started to compile
some criteria against which we measure the validity of an OA journal.

You are welcome to add/use/comment.

I. Mandatory

-          The journal must have a proper web page and URL with the
following info e.g. Contact details, Editorial Team, Editorial Board,
Advisory Board, Scope and Focus, Peer Review Process (must be an
exhaustive peer review process), Publication Frequency, Open Access
Policy, Author Guidelines, About the Publisher, Previously published
issues (Archive) , Copyright policy (under the Creative Commons

Licensing policies

-          International editorial board
-          Valid online ISSN registered with the ISSN International
Centre (France)

-          Members of CrossRef with doi’s assigned to individual articles
-          Journal must have established a history of responsible
reporting (not always possible with “new” OA journals)

-          The journal must contain good quality articles detailing
well performed research

II. Recommended

-          Listed on DOAJ (not all OA journals are listed on DOAJ
immediately, and there might be a slight time delay)

-          Publisher must be registered with OASPA

-          OA Policy of publisher must be available via SHERPA/RoMEO

-          Listed on Wikipedia as an academic journal

-          Digital preservation policy in place

-          Journal title must be listed with one of the following:
International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS)

Science Citation Index
Social Sciences Citation Index
Arts and Humanities Citation Index

-          Journal impact factor assigned to the journal - Journal
Citation Reports - ISI (for impact factors)

-          Journal ranking is recommended - SCImago Journal
Ranking (Scopus)

Kind regards
Ina Smith (Stellenbosch University, South Africa)
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
URL: http://library.sun.ac.za