Walt at Random

My name appeared in a Nature news article today (August 6, 2014). Specifically:

The DOAJ, which receives around 600,000 page views a month, according to Bjørnshauge, is already supposed to be filtered for quality. But a study by Walt Crawford, a retired library systems analyst in Livermore, California, last month (see go.nature.com/z524co) found that the DOAJ currently includes some 900 titles that are mentioned in a blacklist of 9,200 potential predatory journals compiled by librarian Jeffrey Beall at the University of Colorado Denver (see Nature 495, 433–435; 2013).

and, later in the piece:

Bjørnshauge says that a small cohort of some 30 voluntary associate editors — mainly librarians and PhD students — will check the information submitted in reapplications with the publishers, and there will be a second layer of checks from managing editors. He also finds it “extremely questionable to run blacklists of open-access publishers”, as Beall has done. (Crawford’s study found that Beall’s apparently voluminous list includes many journals that are empty, dormant or publish fewer than 20 articles each year, suggesting that the problem is not as bad as Beall says.)

Naturally (or Natureally), I’m delighted to have my name show up, and a C&I issue linked to, in Nature. (It didn’t come as a complete surprise: the journalist sent me email asking about my affiliation–none–and, later, where I live.)

I’m not quite as delighted with the slant of that first paragraph (quite apart from the fact that Beall’s lists do not list some 9,200 “potential predatory journals,” they include publishers that publish or “publish” that number of journal names). Namely, I think the story is not that 900 “potentially predatory” journals appear in DOAJ with the loose listing criteria that site formerly used. I think the story is that more than 90% of the journals in DOAJ are not reflected in Beall’s list, given his seeming zeal to target OA journals.

But, of course, it’s the journalist’s story, not mine, and I do not feel I was quoted incorrectly or unfairly. (Incidentally, I don’t  have nits to pick with the second paragraph.)

I agree with Bjørnshauge that a blacklist is itself questionable.

Do I believe the much improved DOAJ will constitute a real whitelist? I’m not sure; I think it will be a great starting point. If a journal’s in the new DOAJ, and especially has the DOAJplus listing, it’s fair to assume that it’s probably a reasonably good place to be. (But then, I’m no more an expert in what journals are Good or Bad than Beall is.)

Anyway: thanks, Richard Van Noorden, for mentioning me. I hope the mention leads more people to read more about questionable journals than just Beall’s list. I strongly believe that the vast majority of Gold OA journals are as reputable as the vast majority of subscription journals, and I believe I’ve demonstrated that there aren’t any 9,200 “predatory” journals out there that are actual journals researchers with actual brains and a modicum of common sense would ever submit articles to.

A few readers may know that I’ve embarked on a related but even more ambitious (or idiotic) project, having to do with volume of articles and adding a new and very different control group. Dunno when (if?) I’ll finish the huge amount of desk work involved and produce some results. I do believe that, among other things, the results may shed some light on the apparent controversy over how prevalent APCs are among Gold OA journals… (And, incidentally, more financial support for C&I wouldn’t hurt this process.)