[GOAL] Fwd: Dark Side of Openness: Identity Theft and Fraudulent Postings By Predatory OA Publishers

[Stevan Harnad]

The research community needs to unite to expose, name and shame these
increasingly criminal practices by predatory "publishers" bent on making a
fast buck by abusing the research community's legitimate desire for open
access (OA) (as well as exploiting some researchers' temptation to get
accepted for publication fast, no matter what the cost or quality).

I cannot omit mentioning that this is yet another symptom of "gold fever,"
in which researchers mistakenly assume that OA only means publishing their
articles in a gold OA journal (often for a price) and forget about green OA
self-archiving of articles published in subscription journals, and at no
additional cost.

Green OA retains the quality and track-record of established journals, and
needs to come first. If and when universally mandated green OA makes
subscriptions unsustainable, that's the time to for journals to make the
transition to gold OA, maintaining their respective authorships,
readerships, refereeships, and titles, hence their quality and track-record.

The price of pre-emptive gold fever is not just the extra gold OA fees,
over and above what is still being paid for subscriptions that remain
uncancelable until there is universal green OA as an alternative, but, as
we see, the growth of these bottom-feeding junk-journals, purveying fool's
gold.

Jeffrey Beall is performing an invaluable service: Let us all help him by
naming and shaming the false-name-shamers so they don't keep treating the
research community like a community of suckers waiting (and asking) to be
bilked.

Stevan Harnad

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Peter Suber <peter.suber at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Dec 18, 2012 at 12:48 PM
Subject: [sparc-oaforum] Fwd: [SCHOLCOMM] Backlash against my blog
To: SOAF post <sparc-oaforum at arl.org>, BOAI Forum post <
boai-forum at ecs.soton.ac.uk>, GOAL post <goal at eprints.org>


[Forwarding from Jeffrey Beall, via the ScholComm list.  --Peter Suber.]


Colleagues,****

** **

I am the author of Scholarly Open Access <http://scholarlyoa.com/>, a blog
that includes lists of questionable scholarly publishers and questionable
independent journals. ****

** **

I'm writing to let people that I've been the victim of an ongoing,
organized attempt to discredit me and my blog. ****

** **

Specifically, I've been a victim of email
spoofing<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email_spoofing>,
in which someone is sending emails that appear to be from me but really are
not. ****

** **

One of the spoofed emails is an offer to "reevaluate" a publisher's
presence on my list for five thousand dollars. These emails try to make it
look like I am extorting money from publishers. ****

** **

Also, someone is going around setting up new blogs that reprint the spoofed
email or that include contrived quotes from scholars. An example is
here<http://editormedicinalchemistry.wordpress.com/2012/12/17/jeffrey-beall-is-blackmailing-small-open-access-publishers-through-his-predatory-publishers-blog/>.
****

** **

Additionally, someone is leaving negative comments about me and my work on
various OA-related blogs and websites, writing in the names of people
prominent in the OA movement. One place this occurred was in the comments
section of my October *Nature* piece. The publisher has removed these
spurious statements and closed further comments.****

** **

I'm going to continue my work identifying questionable and predatory
publishers as best I can. Because many of the publishers on my list are
true criminals, it's no surprise that they would respond in a criminal way.
****

** **

I realize my blog is not perfect; I've made mistakes and have tried to
learn from them. Many of you have given me valuable advice, and I have
tried to implement the good advice as best I could. I have not engaged in
any of the activities that they are trying to frame me with.****

** **

Thanks for your understanding. ****

** **

Jeffrey****

** **

Jeffrey Beall, MA, MSLS, Associate Professor****

Scholarly Initiatives Librarian
Auraria Library
University of Colorado Denver
1100 Lawrence St.
Denver, Colo.  80204 USA
(303) 556-5936
jeffrey.beall at ucdenver.edu****

** **

[image: Description: Description:
http://www.ucdenver.edu/about/departments/oiuc/brand/downloads/branddownloads/branddocuments/Logos-E-mail%20Signatures/emailSig_2campus.png]
****

** **

** **

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