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List of Predatory Journals Gets Colorado Academic Librarian Called an Academic Terrorist, He Strikes Back

June 15, 2017

Since 2012 a Colorado academic librarian listed predatory publishers and journals who he deemed charged fees for minimal services and who published unsound research. Despite having since taken down the list, he is still receiving abuse and has now hit back with a response.

Some unscrupulous publishers distribute “predatory journals” which provide academics with minimal services for a disproportionate fee. With little in the way of peer review or editing, these journals can contain articles of questionable authority. Jeffrey Beall, a librarian at the University of Colorado at Denver, published a list of journals and publishers he thought predatory. The list was well received by many in academia, but not so much by some publishers, librarians and academics involved within the open source community. He took down the list in January, but he continues to receive attacks.  He has now published a response in a special issue about predatory journals within Biochemica Medica.