Predatory Publishers and Open Access
Predatory publishers are academic publishers that are taking advantage of the changing nature of scholarly publishing. As the model shifts from a user-pay to author-pay model (APC), predatory publishers are taking advantage of scholars that are not familiar with this new landscape. Predatory publishers lack academic rigour or credibility, though they market themselves as having both in high quantities. Essentially, predatory publishers aggressively solicit articles from unknowing authors. Predatory publishers often require authors to pay for the editing, printing, marketing (an APC) but the authors will not benefit from the same high peer-review and editorial standards of other established journals.
While most open access journals uphold a high peer-review and editorial standards as do highly-regarded subscription journals, predatory OA journal publishers do not. Fundamentally, the primary goal of predatory publishers is to generate profits rather than promote academic scholarship. Many OA journal publishers collect a fee from authors to pay for publication and website maintenance. But predatory OA journal publishers exploit this business model, taking fees from authors without providing the services, such as peer-review and copy editing, one would expect from established reputable publishers.
Unfortunately, scholars in certain regions are affected more acutely by predatory publishing. As Tennant suggests, "the spatial distribution of both the predatory publishers and those authors who submit in pseudo-journals is highly skewed: Asia and Africa contributes three quarters of authors and Indian journals form the overwhelming proportion of predatory publishers." This is due to the fact that evaluation of research impact in certain countries strongly favors international publication without quality control.
Digital Literacies
Characteristics of Predatory Publishers
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