From: "Sowards, Steve" <[log in to unmask]> Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2017 14:48:27 +0000 Good summary in The New Yorker today too, as you may already have seen: http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/paging-dr-fraud-the-fake-publishers-that-are-ruining-science?mbid=synd_digg . In our library, we had a recent in-house conversation about how to spot predatory journals. In working up a list of "clues" to share with our campus faculty, we ran across an indexing and abstracting service that has some of the usual hallmarks: fees, intriguing promises, etc. Can it be that there are now also predatory indexes, that serve predatory journals? The one we looked at is International Scientific Indexing, or "ISI" (which of course is reminiscent of a legitimate I&A service). From their site a: http://www.isindexing.com/isi/payment.php "After you pay the indexing fee your journal is indexed with in 4 hours after the approval of our board..." Fast work. Now that Beall's list is gone, is there any utility in consulting the list of 2,094 journals at "ISI"? http://www.isindexing.com/isi/journals.php. Surprisingly, I've actually heard of the publisher for a few of the journals listed there. Steven Sowards Associate Director for Collections Michigan State University Libraries 366 W. Circle Drive East Lansing MI 48824 -----Original Message----- From: "Jim O'Donnell" <[log in to unmask]> Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2017 12:41:18 -0700 In this very interesting article: http://www.nature.com/news/predatory-journals-recruit-fake-editor-1.21662 . . . a group of four scholars at the University of Wrocław created a completely fake profile for a purported scientist and then had her submit application to hundreds of journals to join their editorial boards. "She" was not unsuccessful: "We conceived a sting operation and submitted a fake application for an editor position to 360 journals, a mix of legitimate titles and suspected predators. Forty-eight titles accepted. Many revealed themselves to be even more mercenary than we had expected." The article includes interesting comparisons of the differential response from journals on the controversial (and now disappeared) Beall's list, from journals in DOAJ, and JCR (Journal Citation Reports) journals. The need for money to change hands in some irregular ways is a recurring but not universal theme. Meanwhile the non-existent scientist seems (I won't spoil the punch lines of the article) assured of a prestigious and visible career. Jim O'Donnell Arizona State University