Home: Predatory Publishing: Resources

Predatory Journals

Anderson, R. (2019). Issue Brief 3: Deceptive Publishing. Open Scholarship Initiative Proceedings. https://doi.org/10.13021/osi2019.2419

Chambers, A. H. (2019). How I became easy prey. Science, 364(6440), 602-602. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.364.6440.602

Grudniewicz, A., Moher, D., Cobey, K. D., Bryson, G. L., Cukier, S., Allen, K., Ardern, C., Balcom, L., Barros, T., Berger, M., Ciro, J. B., Cugusi, L., Donaldson, M. R., Egger, M., Graham, I. D., Hodgkinson, M., Khan, K. M., Mabizela, M., Manca, A., Milzow, K. , . . . Lalu, M. M.(2019). Predatory journals: no definition, no defence. Science 576(7786), 210-212. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03759-y

Kisely, S. (2019). Predatory journals and dubious publishers: How to avoid being their prey. BJPsych Advances, 25(2), 113-119. https://doi.org/10.1192/bja.2018.56

Manca, A., Moher, D., Cugusi, L., Dvir, Z., & Deriu, F. (2018). How predatory journals leak into PubMed. CMAJ, 190(35), E1042-E1045.https://10.1503/cmaj.180154

Memon, A. R. (2018). Predatory Journals Spamming for Publications: What Should Researchers Do? Science & Engineering Ethics, 24(5), 1617–1639. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-017-9955-6

Teixeira da Silva, J. A. (2020). An Alert to COVID-19 Literature in Predatory Publishing Venues. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 46(5). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2020.102187

Trapp, J. (2020). Predatory publishing, hijacking of legitimate journals and impersonation of researchers via special issue announcements: a warning for editors and authors about a new scam. Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine volume, 43(1), 9–10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13246-019-00835-5

Vervoort, D., Ma, X., & Shrime, M. G. (2020). Money down the drain: predatory publishing in the COVID-19 era. Canadian Journal of Public Health = Revue Canadienne de Sante Publique, 111(5), 665–666. https://doi.org/10.17269/s41997-020-00411-5

Predatory Conferences

Bakri, S. J., & Shah, S. M. (2021). Predatory Conferences: Calling for Vigilance From Ophthalmologists and Vision Scientists. American Journal of Ophthalmology, 230, 178–180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajo.2021.03.027

Laskowski-Jones, L. (2017). Don’t fall for predatory conferences either. Nursing, 47(12), 6. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NURSE.0000526896.15251.d9

Al-Khatib, A., & Silva, J. (2017). Threats to the Survival of the Author-Pays-Journal to Publish Model. Publishing Research Quarterly, 33(1), 64–70. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12109-016-9486-z

Cuschieri, S. (2018). WASP: Is open access publishing the way forward? A review of the different ways in which research papers can be published. Early Human Development, 121, 54–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2018.02.017

Ellingson, M. K., Shi, X., Skydel, J. J., Nyhan, K., Lehman, R., Ross, J. S., & Wallach, J. D. (2021). Publishing at any cost: a cross-sectional study of the amount that medical researchers spend on open access publishing each year. BMJ Open, 11(2), e047107. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-047107

Wang, J. Z., Pourang, A., & Burrall, B. (2019). Open access medical journals: Benefits and challenges. Clinics in Dermatology, 37(1), 52–55. https://doi.org/flo.org/10.1016/j.clindermatol.2018.09.010

Jeffrey Beall, who coined the term "predatory open access publishing," is a Scholarly Communications Librarian at the University of Colorado-Denver. Beall studies scholarly open-access publishing, and until January of 2017 he maintained a list of individual journals and publishers he viewed as "potentially predatory." His Scholarly Open Access blog existed from 2012 to 2017.

While Beall has been viewed as an expert on the topic of predatory publishing, he is also a controversial figure who has openly criticized the open access publishing model, arguing that the "author pays" model has created an opportunity for predatory publishers. Well known for his knowledge on the topic, Beall's critics have expressed concerns about his lack of support for the open access movement, and a lack of transparency regarding his reasons for including journals and publishers on his list of "potentially predatory publishers."

Beall abruptly stopped maintaining his Scholarly Open Access blog on January 16, 2017. Across the country, many debated the reasons for the sudden shutdown of this important blog, however in May of 2017, Beall published What I Learned from Predatory Publishers. In the article, he states his reasons for ending his blog:

"In January 2017, facing intense pressure from my employer, the University of Colorado Denver, and fearing for my job, I shut down the blog and removed all its content from the blog platform." (Beall, 2017)

Beall's List (Archived Version)
This is an archived version of Beall's List. The original list has NOT been maintained or updated since January 2017. However, this copy of the list is updated periodically by an anonymous postdoctoral researcher.

Selected Articles by Beall

Beall, J. (2015). Response to “Beyond Beall’s List.” College & Research Libraries News, 76(6), 340–341. https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.76.6.9334
(Read "Beyond Beall's List")

Beall, J. (2016). Essential information about predatory publishers and journals. International Higher Education, (86), 2-3.https://doi.org/10.6017/ihe.2016.86.9358

Beall, J. (2016). Pharmacy research and predatory journals: Authors beware. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy : AJHP : Official Journal of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, 73(19), 1548–1550. https://doi-org.ezproxyemc.flo.org/10.2146/ajhp160150

Beall, J. (2017). What I learned from predatory publishers. Biochemia medica, 27(2), 273-278. https://doi.org/10.11613/BM.2017.029
Note: In May 2017, months after Jeffrey Beall stopped maintaining his Scholarly Open Access Blog, Beall finally spoke out about why he shut down his list of predatory journals.

Selected Articles about Beall

Basken, P. (2017, September 22). Why Beall’s List Died -- and What It Left Unresolved About Open Access. Chronicle of Higher Education, 64(4), 13. (Access article)

Berger, M., & Cirasella, J. (2015). Beyond Beall’s List. College & Research Libraries News, 76(3), 132–135. https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.76.3.9277

Krawczyk, F., & Kulczycki, E. (2021). How is open access accused of being predatory? The impact of Beall's lists of predatory journals on academic publishing. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 47(2). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2020.102271

Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
COPE provides advice to editors and publishers on all aspects of publication ethics and, in particular, how to handle cases of research and publication misconduct. (See Discussion Document: Predatory Publishing)
Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association
Retraction Watch
Retraction Watch tracks article retractions. In the process, it sometimes highlights unethical publishing practices.
Think, Check, Attend
An initiative that aims to guide and assist researchers and scholars in choosing trusted conferences to attend and to present their research.
Think, Check, Submit
Think. Check. Submit. is a campaign to help researchers identify trusted journals for their research. It is a simple checklist researchers can use to assess the credentials of a journal or publisher.
WAME: World Association of Medical Editors

This guide is intended to provide information about predatory publishing and is intended as a guide only. Deciding where to publish is solely the responsibility of individual authors.

This guide was adapted from Predatory Publishing, George Washington University.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.