ACADEMIA SHOULD STOP USING BEALL’S LISTS AND REVIEW THEIR USE IN PREVIOUS STUDIES

Academics (should) strive to submit journals which are academically sound and scholarly. To achieve this, they could either that appear exclusively on safelists (occasionally referred as whitelists, although this term tends be avoided), or avoid submitting watchlists blacklists, avoided). The most well-known of these lists was curated by Jeffrey Beall. Beall’s Lists (there two, one for stand-alone publishers) were taken offline Beall himself in January 2017. Prior 2017, widely cited utilized, including make quantitative claims about scholarly publishing. Even after became obsolete (they have not been maintained the past six years), continue used. This paper argues use Lists, pre- post-2017, may constitute a methodological error and, even if papers carry disclaimer limitations section noting weakness, their conclusions cannot always relied upon. also need conduct detailed post-publication assessment reports literature used validate findings conclusions, assuming it becomes accepted reliable resource scientific investigation. Finally, contends any identified errors should corrected. Several cloned from emerged being cited. These included investigation is conducted.