Beall’s List of Predatory Open Access Publishers is a web site, maintained by Jeffrey Beall, a librarian at UC Denver. Beall’s list contains several different continually updated lists of OA publishers with questionable or harmful practices. The list was started in 2011 as an annual publication, and moved to a continual-update model in 2014 due to the increasing volume of publishers. Now, the list publishes an annual index with links to the lists and a basic overview of the number of journals in each.
Currently, Beall’s List contains information on predatory publishers split into the following categories:
- Predatory Publishers
- Predatory standalone journals
- Misleading metrics companies
- Hijacked journals
– Publishers which meet any of the criteria set forth in this document, including but not limited to gender bias, conflict of interest, lack of expertise, lack of clarity about fees and charges, false claims, etcetera.
– Similar to the list above, except for specific journals, instead of publishers.
– Companies on this list claim to maintain reputable metrics, but do not.
– A list of web sites created to spoof legitimate journal web sites, with the aim of tricking authors into paying to publish through them instead.
Beall’s list is an excellent resource for anyone with questions about an OA publisher or journal. The 2016 index post to Beall’s List of Predatory OA Publishers, with links to each list, can be found here.