Ethics in academic publishing: a timely reminder

Most, if not all, academic librarians are by now familiar with the term “predatory publishing.” Beall in 2012 defined predatory publishers as “those that unprofessionally exploit the gold open-access model for their own profit,” often taking advantage of junior faculty and graduate students [1]. This problem has grown at an almost exponential rate. Whereas Beall identified 23 suspected predatory publishers in 2011 [1], he identified 1,150 suspect publishers [2] and 1,254 suspect standalone journals [3] as of 2016. As the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors notes, public trust in academic research and the publishing industry is in jeopardy [4].