I've used this list a number of times on this blog (most recently here with, I must say, a nice comment on the economics of the industry):
Jeffrey Beall, the University of Colorado, Denver, librarian who has since 2008 chronicled “potential, possible, or probable” predatory publishers, has — at least for now — pulled the plug on his influential, and at times controversial, site.
The decision to take down the site — and Beall’s faculty page at the Auraria Library, where he remains a tenured associate professor — was his own, the University of Colorado Denver tells Retraction Watch.
The site, scholarlyoa.com, which just earlier this month included a list of more than 1,000 such publishers, now contains no information. The sudden change was noted Sunday on Twitter, where questions about the move — cataloged, along with some answers, by Emil Karlsson — swirled for two days. Beall’s faculty page was also taken down.
Some of the speculation surrounded Cabell’s, a publishing services company that had earlier announced it would house a publisher blacklist beginning sometime this year. Cabell’s, however, said it was not involved in the closure, and that it supported Beall. Cabell’s tweets also hinted at legal threats, which Beall has faced in the past.
Emil Karlsson reports:
BREAKING: Retraction Watch has received a statement by the university indicating that Beall “has decided to no longer maintain or publish his research or blog on open access journals and ‘predatory publishers’.” The statement notes that “Professor Beall remains on the faculty at the university and will be pursuing new areas of research”. Now the only information that we need is additional details about why Beall decided to call it quits. Did he reach his breaking point or where lawsuit threats (or similar) involved? (note added 20170118 01:14 UTC+1).
BREAKING: ScienceInsider reports that the university has stated that the disappearance of the list is not related to legal threats. Now we know the “how” and the “what”, but not the “why” (note added 20170118 01:47 UTC+1).
It is a shame that we have lost this public good. Predatory journals are a problem in academic publishing. I've sent two papers to journals on Beall's list over the past several years. I submitted old, unpublished papers with a made up name and email address. Both papers were accepted for publication in a couple of days with either no or very minor revision. The journals then began asking for money and I closed the email accounts.
Emil Karlsson posts links to the list:
Thankfully, there are cached copies of his key lists available:
Publishers: Archive.is | Archive.org
Standalone journals: Archive.is | Archive.org
Hijacked journals: Archive.is | Archive.org
Metric companies: Archive.is | Archive.org
Here is the January 13 link on the Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20170113114519/https://scholarlyoa.com/2016/01/05/bealls-list-of-predatory-publishers-2016/.
