[GOAL] Beall's list is removed

[Heather Morrison]

A bit of history that might be useful to those new to such issues:

In 2013 NPR reported that publisher OMICS had threatened Beall with a $1 billion lawsuit for criticizing the company:
 http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/05/15/184233141/publisher-threatens-librarian-with-1-billion-lawsuit

In 2016 the US Federal Trade Commission sued OMICS:
http://retractionwatch.com/2016/08/26/u-s-government-group-sues-publisher-charging-it-with-deceiving-researchers/

best,

Heather Morrison

> On Jan 18, 2017, at 1:04 PM, Stevan Harnad <harnad at ecs.soton.ac.uk> wrote:
> 
> No, this is not the whole -- nor the end — of the story.
> 
> My prediction is that the take-down of Beall’s list was indeed a result of FUD threats and actions (to Beall and his institution) by the deep pockets profiting from predation on authors’ publish-or-perish pressures. 
> 
> My hope is that a reliable service like it will indeed re-appear, with the collaboration of Jeffrey Beall (who has been something of a loose cannon, but on balance provided a valuable service).
> 
> My suspicion is that those trying to make hay out of this take-down are themselves predatorily inclined and perhaps even part of the FUD campaign to take him and his institution down.
> 
> Where there’s big bucks to be made, as in predatory “journal” publishing,” principles and scruples wither (with peer review the first to go)...
> 
> Stevan Harnad
> 
>> On Jan 18, 2017, at 10:24 AM, Jihane Salhab <jderg011 at uottawa.ca> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi all,
>> 
>> FYI Beall’s list is removed. Check the following post: Mystery as controversial list of predatory publishers disappears .
>>  
>> A better option for authors to verify good publishers is thinkchecksubmit.org. In my opinion, it does a  better job than Beall's controversial list, because it relies on authors’ own judgements.
>> 
>>  “Think. Check. Submit. is a cross-industry initiative led by representatives from ALPSP, DOAJ, INASP,  ISSN, LIBER, OASPA, STM, UKSG, and individual publishers.”
>>  
>> Have a good day!
>>  
>> Jihane Salhab
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