From: Ken Masters <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Fri, 31 May 2013 10:07:09 +0400

Hi All

Anthony says:

> In many disreputable companies there may be an editor listed and there may be an editorial board but are these people being asked to referee papers and, if so, how is the decision to publish being reached? We do not know.

Exactly.  Until we DO know know, we do not have the right to assume
guilt.  If Beall knows this for a fact, then let him say so, in each
case.  But he doesn't, and so we are left guessing.  A simple question
for Beall is, do you have evidence that each of these publishers does
this?  If so, where is the evidence?  And we need that question
answered for each publisher, for each of Beall's criteria.  Until that
evidence is produced, listing a publisher tarnishes all the journals
for no good reason.

And the fact that some of these publishers are on his list only
because they are "potential" predatory publishers makes even less
sense.  Every person in the world is a potential criminal; that
doesn't mean we can list everybody we know know and call them
potential criminals.  Well, of course, freedom of speech in some
countries possibly grants us that right, but that doesn't mean that
intelligent people are going to take our list seriously.

With caveats and vagueness like that supporting that list, I'm really
at a loss to explain why librarians pay it heed at all.

Regards

Ken

------

Dr. Ken Masters
Asst. Professor: Medical Informatics
Medical Education Unit
College of Medicine & Health Sciences
Sultan Qaboos University
Sultanate of Oman
E-i-C: The Internet Journal of Medical Education