The removal of a website flagging up journals with questionable publishing practices leave some wondering how this will impact credible publishers. Times Higher Education brought this to our attention in their article, “Beall’s list closure a ‘boon for predatory publishers’.”
Yes, the list of “potential, possible or probably” predatory publishers was controversial, with some publishers threatening legal action and others complaining of a lack of transparency on the decisions. However, it had become the go-to resource for researchers to check on the status of unfamiliar journals they were considering for publication of their work.
Timothy Rich, assistant professor in the political science department at Western Kentucky University, said “It is incumbent on academics to point out these publishers, to name and shame these publishers, and to discourage non-academics from using these sources as legitimate research,” he said.
But he pointed out that there are some academics willing to pay to publish in predatory journals to boost their publication count. “The list served to identify such behavior,” he said.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.
