From: Pippa Smart <[log in to unmask]> Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2012 14:29:57 +0000 His blog is worth checking out - http://metadata.posterous.com/?tag=predatoryopenaccessjournals as he includes summaries about apparently unethical publishers - a good list to alert your researchers to. Pippa ***** Pippa Smart Research Communication and Publishing Consultant PSP Consulting email: [log in to unmask] Web: www.pspconsulting.org **** Editor of the ALPSP-Alert, Reviews editor of Learned Publishing **** On 8 March 2012 19:59, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > From: Jim O'Donnell <[log in to unmask]> > Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2012 07:39:36 -0500 > > Yesterday's Chronicle of Higher Education has a long piece on 'predatory > OA journals', with a focus on the work of a Colorado librarian who > monitors the business. > > Do list readers think this is a significant problem? A growing problem? > > http://chronicle.com/article/Predatory-Online-Journals/131047/?key=HD10d1VhNHdJbCsyZTgRMj4EOyFoZk0hYn9JPS8pbl9cEQ%3D%3D > > Extract: > > The practice of charging authors to have their work published is not > inherently problematic, said Jeffrey Beall, a librarian at the > University of Colorado at Denver, who tracks open-access publishers > that operate on an author-pays model. > > "There is nothing wrong with the model itself," Mr. Beall said, citing > author-pays publishers he considers to be legitimate, like the Public > Library of Science (PLoS). But, he said, because the author-pays > system features an inherent conflict of interest—publishers make more > money if they accept more articles—it is ripe for abuse. > > Such abuse is becoming more prevalent, Mr. Beall said. On his blog > Scholarly Open Access, he keeps a running list of what he calls > "predatory" open-access publishers. Mr. Beall said he uncovers one new > predatory journal or publishing company about every week, and his list > now totals more than 50 publishers and individual journals. > > Mr. Beall defines a "predatory" publisher as one whose main goal is to > generate profits rather than promote academic scholarship. Such > publishers, he said, "add little value to scholarship, pay little > attention to digital preservation, and operate using fly-by-night, > unsustainable business models." > > Jim O'Donnell > Georgetown U.