Predatory Journals

In academic publishing, predatory publishing is an exploitative publishing (typically open-access) business model that involves charging publication fees to authors without providing the editorial and publishing services associated with legitimate journals.

University of Colorado Denver librarian and researcher Jeffrey Beall coined the term "predatory publishing." After noticing a large number of emails inviting him to submit articles or join the editorial board of previously unknown journals, he began researching open-access publishers and created Beall's List of potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open-access publishers. The list was published online from 2010 to 2016. On January 17, 2017, Beall made the decision that Beall's List and accompanying blog would be taken offline.

At CSULB, predatory publishing has been a hot topic since 2015. Awareness of the issue is critical, because it has the potential to affect tenure and promotion in certain colleges. CSULB Library maintains predatory journals information for faculty authors where you can also find information on:

  • journal metrics: how journals are evaluated, where to find journal metrics (such as impact factors, etc.)
  • author metrics: find out who cited you
  • author's rights: making sure you protect yourself and your work when publishing
  • open accessing publishing/open educational resources
  • predatory publishers: includes criteria as well as links to Beall's infamous list, but also others as Beall is a controversial figure
  • data management plans
  • tools for authors
  • where to get help

Contact CNSM Research

Associate Dean for Research