For an excellent blog post about predatory publishing or deceptive publishing, check out what Rick Anderson shares (The Scholarly Kitchen, Aug 17, 2015). This is an issue that continues to plague the scholarly communication landscape with some publishers truly behaving like wolves in sheep’s clothing. The most important thing we can do for our researchers, whether they are just starting their publishing careers or are seasoned authors, is to highlight and make them aware of unscrupulous publishers.

Rick Anderson cites in his post four varieties of deceptive publishing: Phony Journals, Pseudo-scholarly Journals, False-flag Journals, and Masqueraders.  As librarians, we certainly don’t want our authors to publish in any title that falls under these four headings.  From my perspective, the best way to prevent this from happening is to encourage our authors to evaluate journals, especially ones that are new to the publishing scene or that they have never heard of.  For titles that are Open Access (OA), authors should consider the criteria that Jeffrey Beall outlines in his document entitled “Criteria for Determining Predatory Open-Access Publishers.” Mr. Beall is a librarian and associate professor at the Auraria Library, University of Colorado and is best known for his blog, Scholarly Open Access.

If any MSK author is unsure about a publisher’s solicitation or wants to know more about an OA title, then don’t hesitate to ASK US. Library staff would be happy to explore the journal title in question on your behalf, to help you establish if it should be described as deceptive, predatory, or just a new fledging title on its way to making a name for itself!

Donna Gibson
Director of Library Services