In this episode, I'll be presenting the story of Jeffrey Beall; an academic librarian who pitted himself against the might of so-called 'predatory' scientific publishers by publicly naming them online. However, the list he published, and Beall himself have largely disappeared from the internet since January 2017. We're going to find out why.

Audio Credits

"Making A Change" by Lee Rosevere, from the album "Music for Podcasts 3". Making A Change by Lee Rosevere is licensed under a Attribution License.

Cleaning up bad science https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SImj1iRMwgM (starting at 7:38)

Predatory Publishers http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/predatory-journals/9019956

"Murmuration" by Silicon Transmitter, Murmuration by Silicon Transmitter is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Touch the Darkness" by Kai Engel, Touch the Darkness by Kai Engel is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.

"Clean Soul" by Kevin MacLeod, Clean Soul by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Attribution 3.0 International License. Based on a work at incompetech.com 

"Triumph" by Jon Luc Hefferman, Production Music by Jon Luc Hefferman is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License.  Based on a work at http://needledrop.co 

References

Growth rates of modern science: A bibliometric analysis based on the number of publications and cited references https://arxiv.org/abs/1402.4578

Academic journal publishing is headed for a day of reckoning https://theconversation.com/academic-journal-publishing-is-headed-for-a-day-of-reckoning-80869

Open access: The true cost of science publishing. Richard Van Noorden, Nature 495, 426–429 (28 March 2013) doi:10.1038/495426a https://www.nature.com/news/open-access-the-true-cost-of-science-publishing-1.12676

Vanity and predatory academic publishers are corrupting the pursuit of knowledge Michael J. I. Brown. https://theconversation.com/vanity-and-predatory-academic-publishers-are-corrupting-the-pursuit-of-knowledge-45490

Feds target 'predatory' publishers https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/08/29/federal-trade-commission-begins-crack-down-predatory-publishers

Who will keep predatory science journals at bay now that Jeffrey Beall's blog is gone? https://theconversation.com/who-will-keep-predatory-science-journals-at-bay-now-that-jeffrey-bealls-blog-is-gone-71613

What happened to Jeffrey Beall's list of alleged predatory publishers https://debunkingdenialism.com/2017/01/16/what-happened-to-jeffrey-bealls-list-of-allegedly-predatory-publishers/

Scientific articles accepted (and personal checks too) https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/health/for-scientists-an-exploding-world-of-pseudo-academia.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2&

Controversial website that lists predatory publishers shut down https://www.nature.com/news/controversial-website-that-lists-predatory-publishers-shuts-down-1.21328

What I learned from predatory publishers Jeffrey Beall. Biochemia Medica 2017;27(2):273-9. https://doi.org/10.11613/BM.2017.029

Publisher threatens to sue blogger for $1-billion https://www.chronicle.com/article/Publisher-Threatens-to-Sue/139243  

US court issues injunction against OMICS to stop "deceptive practices" https://retractionwatch.com/2017/11/22/us-court-issues-injunction-omics-stop-deceptive-practices/

Biohacker Meow-Ludo Disco Gamma Meow-Meow who implanted Opal Card into hand escapes conviction http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-18/biohacker-who-implanted-opal-card-into-hand-escapes-conviction/9880524

'Academic Terrorist' Carl Straumsheim , June 2, 2017 https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/06/02/librarian-behind-list-predatory-publishers-still-faces-harassment-online

OMICS International website https://www.omicsonline.org/

Predatory journals exploit structural weaknesses in scholarly publishing. Jeffrey Beall. 4open 1 1 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1051/fopen/2018001

Predatory publishers are corrupting open access. Jeffrey Beall Nature 489, 179 (13 September 2012) doi:10.1038/489179a

The "Serials Crisis" Explained… https://sites.tufts.edu/scholarlycommunication/open-access/the-serials-crisis-explained/

Who's afraid of peer-review? http://science.sciencemag.org/content/342/6154/60.full

"Scholarly open access" n.b. this a copycat site of Beall's original, seemingly set up solely to attack and discredit Beall. No clear provenance or authorship. I include this as an example of the hostility demonstrated toward Beall and his work http://scholarlyoa.net/