Page 63 - Global Focus, Issue 2, 2018

Facilitating responsible research | Michael Bisaccio

n June 2017, Cabells (see box page 55) Predatory journals undermine scholarly
Ilaunched the Journal Blacklist—a subscription- communication and hinder progress and
based searchable database of “predatory innovation by publishing anything – nonsense,
journals”, with detailed reports listing specific legitimate research and everything in between,
violations for each journal—as a counterpart weakening the overall body of knowledge in any
to the Whitelist, a database containing critical given field. A perfect storm has been created with
information on verified and reputable academic researchers caught up in the “publish or perish”
journals. While the Blacklist, currently listing over cycle of academia and an increasing number
8,300 (and counting) journals, continues to grow of predatory operations in play, all facilitated by
and evolve to meet the needs of the scholarly the globalisation of scholarly communication.
community, the core goal has remained the same: The proliferation of digital publishing in
to provide an objective and transparent tool for academia has made launching academic journals
identifying the threats in academic publishing. easier than ever and has done much to advance
The rise of predatory journals—fraudulent the democratisation of research. It is also now
operations designed to look like legitimate easier than ever to create fake or deceptive journals
scholarly publications—has been rapid and has for the sole purpose of defrauding researchers or
flourished in the digital age. These journals offer to help unscrupulous researchers defraud
eager (and sometimes unaware) authors the academic institutions or other organisations.
The rise of chance to publish in a “scholarly journal,” usually
predatory journals in exchange for an article-processing charge. Building the 'Blacklist'
—fraudulent Essentially, these “journals” will publish Journals are chosen for evaluation for the
operations designed anything for a price. In some cases, the author Blacklist based on inclusion in Jeffrey Beall’s widely
to look like is an unsuspecting victim whose work may now accepted list of predatory publishers, exclusion
legitimate scholarly be published alongside bad science or otherwise from the Directory of Open access Journals
publications— nonsensical work. They have paid a fee to have (DOAJ) and/or the Open Access Scholarly
has been rapid their work possibly damage their reputation and Publishers Association (OASPA), suggestions
and has flourished have also likely surrendered the right to have it from the community, and information found during
in the digital age published elsewhere. other evaluations and investigations conducted
However, not everyone who publishes in a by Cabells.
predatory journal does so unwittingly. In some The now-defunct Beall’s List, produced by
instances authors are complicit in the deception Jeffrey Beall, the Scholarly Communications
Librarian at the University of Colorado, Denver,
and knowingly seek publication in fraudulent
8.3k journals for the purpose of padding their publication US, was an invaluable resource though not without
its detractors. Amid pressure from his university,
statistics for any number of reasons including
career advancement or to secure funding. Beall scrubbed his list clean and shut it down.
The Blacklist, a counterpart to Having faculty members publish in predatory The end of Beall’s list of predatory publishers
the Whitelist, has over 8,300
journals listed,and counting... journals tarnishes a university’s reputation made it clear how important a role it had played
for research and can create a major public in the academic universe. There remained
relations problem. This can result in the denial a pressing need for information on predatory
of a programme’s accreditation or the loss or publishers but the process of building and
squandering of research grants and funding, effectively managing and maintaining such
not to mention the attrition of the best and a list – and seeing to the side issues it produces
brightest students. – requires a great deal of time and resources.
And it isn’t only authors who find themselves Cabells realises the importance of making
susceptible to the ploys of predatory operations, the information contained in the Blacklist (and
others are acting as peer-reviewers or editors or Whitelist) accessible to as many research entities
even serving on editorial boards, often without as possible and strives to structure subscriptions
any knowledge of doing so (and in some cases accordingly, while also remaining sustainable
while no longer being alive). from a production standpoint.
61