Potential Pitfalls of Scholarly Publishing

Author(s):

Ian Milligan

In light of some recent CFPs that have been making the rounds (both on listservs as well as by direct solicitation), readers might want to familiarize themselves with an important resource for those involved in scholarly publishing. There are a number of new publishers out there, and while many are wonderful and pushing the bar in terms of scholarly dissemination, not all are.

Jeffrey Beall, a librarian at the University of Colorado - Denver, has put together a useful list that is continually updated: "Potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open-access publishers." It’s worth consulting when you see a CFP just to educate yourself on any possibilities - and to inquire further yourself if necessary. Remember to not necessarily search for the name of the journal, but for the publisher name. http://scholarlyoa.com/publishers/

There was also a good overview in the Times Higher Education in August 2012 at http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/420731.article.

As somebody involved in open-access online scholarly dissemination, this isn’t meant as fear mongering, but scholars - especially junior ones and graduate students - need to be cautious when considering where to submit their work.