[GOAL] Re: Interview with Harvard's Stuart Shieber

Thu Dec 13 13:43:11 GMT 2012

Perhaps an independent viewpoint might help arbitrate here.

I've believe I've reliably cross-referenced the names of the publishers on
Beall's List ( http://scholarlyoa.com/publishers/ ) with what's listed in
DOAJ.

   - DOAJ does not currently list the vast majority of those listed in
   Beall's List

Those *not* listed in DOAJ, include but are not limited to * (see footnote,
too long for here)

   - As Beall himself would hopefully agree, the growth in 'predatory OA'
   is fairly recent. Since the Solomon & Bjork study analyses 2010 articles it
   happily avoids many of the predatory OA journals this way. Also note they
   excluded single journal publishers from their sample.

   - Of the Beall's Listed journals that *are* to be found in the DOAJ-list
   ** (see footnote 2) many only starting publishing, or were listed in DOAJ
   from 2011 onwards (and thus are not included in the Solomon & Bjork APC
   study) e.g. Academy of Knowledge Process, American Academic & Scholarly
   Research Center (AASRC), Asian Economic and Social Society (AESS),
   Bonfring, Cosmic Journals, Econjournals, Electronic Center for
   International Scientific Information, Global Research Journals, INREWI,
   Institute of Electronic & Information Technology, ScienceDomain
   International, Scienpress Ltd...

   - Of those journals listed in DOAJ & listed in Beall's list of which
   *might* have been included in the Solomon & Bjork APC study almost none of
   them are high volume in terms of articles. These are the publishers I've
   found that were publishing two or more journals in 2010 & are currently
   DOAJ listed and so *might* (but not definitely) have been included in the
   S&B study sample:

Advanced Research Journals, ARPN Journals, BioIT international Journals ,
InTech Open Access Publisher - Mirror site, KEJA Publications, Sphinx
Knowledge House, Ashdin Publishing, IBIMA Publishing, AENSI, Medwell
Journals, Sciedu Press, Canadian Research & Development Center of Sciences
and Cultures  see CSCanada, Elmer Press, Integrated Publishing Association,
Macrothink Institute, Academic Journals, Computer Science Journals, Hikari
Ltd., Academic and Business Research Institute, BioInfo Publications,
Baishideng Publishing Group, Bentham Open

The only possibly high-vol one is *Bentham Open* with its 220 journals
publishing in 2010. Thus the question raised earlier by Richard (which is a
valid one I must admit) whether the inclusion of some Beall's List journals
*might* have biased the S&B conclusions pretty much comes down to how much
the total article volume of Bentham Open journals in 2010 was (all the
other *possibly included* Beall's list journals would provide negligible
effect on the overall calculations, they would only be a miniscule fraction
of ~100,000 total sample).

I find it hard to quantify how many *articles *Bentham Open published in
2010 but I suspect across those 220 journals it's actually very few:
examine for example the 2 articles published in 2010 in *The Open Biology
Journal *(* *http://www.benthamscience.com/open/tobioj/openaccess2.htm ).
Many of the other 'journals' at Bentham Open published zero articles in
2010. Furthermore Bentham Open APC fees are actually rather high e.g. $800
for a research article in *The Open Biochemistry Journal*

Thus I think this hopefully provides answers to Richard Poynder's earlier
question : (which I'll paraphrase here) Is the S&B 2012 APC study biased by
the possible inclusion of some Beall's List publisher articles?

The evidence I've presented here hopefully leads to the obvious conclusion
of: NO.

(but further discussion welcome)

PS Just for the record, I do not infer anything from being listed in
Beall's List. Here I am merely taking the list at face-value to prove a
point.

* Abhinav, A M Publishers, Academe Research Journals, Academia Publishing,
Academic Journals and Research ACJAR, Academic Journals Online (AJO),
Academic Publications, Ltd., Academic Research Publication, Academic Star,
Academy Journals, Academy of Science and Engineering (ASE), Academy
Publish, Ada Lovelace Publications, Advancements and Development in
Technology International (Aditi), Akademik Plus Publication, American
V-King Scientific Publishing, ANSINetwork, Antarctic Journals, Apex
Journals, Asian Research Consortium, Australian International Academic
Centre Pty. Ltd., Basic Research Journals, Better Advances Press, The
Bioscan, Bioscience Research & Educational Institute [Link dead as of
2012-11-14], British Association of Academic Research (BAAR), British
Journal, Business Journalz (BJ), Canadian Center of Science and Education,
Center for the Development and Dissemination of Knowledge, Center for
Enhancing Knowledge (CEK), UK, Center for Promoting Ideas, Centre For Info
Bio Technology (CIBTech), Centre of Promoting Research Excellence (CPRE),
Cloud Journals, The Clute Institute, CONFAB Journals, CSCanada, Discovery
Publishing Group , David Publishing, Deccan Pharma Journals, e-journals,
e3Journals, eCanadian Journals, EISRJC Journals (E-International Scientific
Research Journal Consortium, eLearning Institute, Elewa Bio Sciences,
eJournals of Academic Research & Reviews, Engineering and Technology
Publishing, Erudite Journals Limited, eSci. Journals Publishing,
EuroJournals, Ficus Publishers, Global Advanced Research Journals, Global
Journals, Inc. (US), GlobalOpenJournals.org, GlobalSkope Publishing
Society, Green Global Foundation (GGF), Greener Journals, Herald
International Research Journals, Human and Sciences Publications
(HumanPub), Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (HRMARS),
Insight Knowledge, Institute of Advanced Scientific Research, Institute of
Language and Communication Studies, Intellectual Archive, Interscience
Journals, Interscience Open Access Journals, ISISnet, Ivy Union Publishing,
Jyoti Academic Press, Knowledgebase Publishers, Knowledgia Scientific
(formerly Knowledgia Review), Lifescience Global, Longbridge Publishing
Company, Marsland Press, Maxwell Scientific Organization, Modern Scientific
Press, Science Alert, Sky Journals, Swiss Journals, World Science
Publisher...

** Academic and Business Research Institute, Academic Journals, Academic
Journals, Inc., Academic Research Publishing Agency, Academic Sciences,
Academy of Knowledge Process, Advanced Research Journals, AENSI, American
Academic & Scholarly Research Center (AASRC), ARPN Journals, Ashdin
Publishing, Asian Economic and Social Society (AESS), Baishideng Publishing
Group, Bentham Open, BioInfo Publications, BioIT international Journals ,
BioMedSciDirect Publications, Bonfring, Canadian Research & Development
Center of Sciences and Cultures, Computer Science Journals, Cosmic
Journals, Econjournals, Electronic Center for International Scientific
Information, Elmer Press, Far East Research Centre, Global Research
Journals, Global Research Online, Global Research Publishing (GRP), Growing
Science Publishing Company, Hikari Ltd., IBIMA Publishing, Indian Society
for Education and Environment, Innovative Space of Scientific Research
(ISSR Journals), INREWI, Institute of Electronic & Information Technology,
InTech Open Access Publisher - Mirror site, Integrated Publishing
Association, KEJA Publications, Macrothink Institute, Medwell Journals,
OMICS Publishing Group, Ross Science Publishers, Sciedu Press,
ScienceDomain International, Scienpress Ltd., Sphinx Knowledge House...

On 13 December 2012 11:36, Richard Poynder <ricky at richardpoynder.co.uk>wrote:

> Point taken, but was there a particular reason for including the "Beall"
> journals in your study? What purpose did it serve?
>
> The criticism of some of these journals, by the way, goes some way beyond
> the fact that they are guilty of spamming researchers.
>
> Richard Poynder
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: bjork at hanken.fi [mailto:bjork at hanken.fi]
> Sent: 13 December 2012 11:24
> To: Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci); Richard Poynder
> Cc: 'Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci)'
> Subject: Re: [GOAL] Re: Interview with Harvard's Stuart Shieber
>
> In our study with David Solomon we weighted the APCs of different journals
> with the number of articles they had published to arrive at the average APC
> of around 900 USD. For instance the impact of PloS One alone is bigger than
> all the 200+ journals of Bentham together. So although we didn't calculate
> any share for "Beall" journals their overall impact is not that big. More
> disturbing is the bad press they create by spamming.
>
> Bo-Christer
>
>
>
> Quoting Richard Poynder <ricky at richardpoynder.co.uk>:
>
> > Hi Ross,
> >
> >
> >
> > Absolutely, I see no problem at all with a publisher being based in the
> > developing world and, as you point out, Hindawi is a good example of a
> > respected publisher based in a developing country.
> >
> >
> >
> > But that does not mean that one should avoid any criticism of publishers
> > because they are based in a certain geographical location.
> >
> >
> >
> > What I am saying is that if you put together the fact that the study
> > included quite a few publishers on Jeffrey Beall's list with the fact
> that
> > these publishers seem invariably to be based in the developing world
> (even
> > though some claim to be based in the US) then you might wonder whether
> the
> > average APC figure arrived at in the study could have been subject to
> some
> > bias.
> >
> >
> >
> > My point is less about the developing world than it is about predatory
> > publishers, and whether they ought to be included in a study aimed at
> > establishing the average cost of publishing in an OA journal.
> >
> >
> >
> > I do understand that Beall's list is a controversial one, but I have
> looked
> > at a number of these publishers myself and I have reached my own
> > conclusions.
> >
> >
> >
> > Richard
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > From: goal-bounces at eprints.org [mailto:goal-bounces at eprints.org] On
> Behalf
> > Of Ross Mounce
> > Sent: 13 December 2012 09:59
> > To: Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci)
> > Subject: [GOAL] Re: Interview with Harvard's Stuart Shieber
> >
> >
> >
> > On 13 December 2012 09:32, Richard Poynder <ricky at richardpoynder.co.uk
> > <mailto:ricky at richardpoynder.co.uk> > wrote:
> >
> > I believe this latter study included a number of publishers based in the
> > developing world
> >
> >
> >
> > Hi Richard,
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > I hope you see nothing wrong in a number of publishers being based in the
> > 'developing world' ?
> >
> > Hindawi are perhaps one such publisher, if one classes Egypt as a
> > 'developing world' country. You've even written yourself that there tends
> to
> > be perhaps an unjust bias against 'developing world' publishers
> >
>
> http://poynder.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/the-oa-interviews-ahmed-hindawi-founde
> > r.html
> >
> >
> >
> > Can you please make clear what you mean by what you said?
> >
> > I don't want to encourage assessments of quality purely based upon
> > geographic location.
> >
> >
> >
> > Best,
> >
> >
> >
> > Ross
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
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-- 
-- 
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Ross Mounce
PhD Student & Open Knowledge Foundation Panton Fellow
Fossils, Phylogeny and Macroevolution Research Group
University of Bath, 4 South Building, Lab 1.07
http://about.me/rossmounce
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
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