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] [log in to unmask] 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