“(Publishers/journals) … that unprofessionally abuse the author-pays publishing model for their own profit.”
--Jeffrey Beall, Librarian, University of Colorado
Signs of a predatory publisher/journal
Spamming researchers with invitations to publish
Misleading info re impact measures, indexing, location
Short review process
Poor website presentation e.g. spelling and grammar errors
Hijacking legitimate journals
Aims and scope, policies ambiguous/not clearly stated
Scope
Estimates vary greatly depending on criteria, sampling
Between 4,000-8,000 predatory journals; mostly in India, elsewhere in Asia
Estimated size of market $32-$74M USD
Between 165,000-420,000 "predatory" articles in 2014, versus 53,000 in 2010