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Commercial publishers started a new business model of publishing, in which they charged extra fees
— Article Processing Charges (APCs), for allowing immediate access to the research papers, referred
to as Gold OA, in which the publishers drew up their individual OA policies for APCs, to cover the
cost of review, manuscript preparation, and server space. Gold OA journals survive solely on revenue
generated by APCs (Harnad, 2010).

Predatory Journals

The “Publish or Perish” policy for career advancement played a major role in prompting some
publishers to take advantage of bringing out the “Pay and Publish” model; which Beall labelled
as “Predatory Publishing”. His most damaging indictment of OA was against its destruction of the
traditional model of publishing, where there was no monetary exchange between the scholar and the
publisher. According to him, the OA arrived with the intention of making the scholarly publications
accessible to all, beyond paywalls; but it was unscrupulously exploited by the predatory publishers
(Beall, 2012, op. cit.). The subsequent rise of predatory publications became an unacceptable fallout.

Definitions of Predatory Journals

• Jeffrey Beall: Early definitions by Beall describe predatory publishers as outlets “which publish
counterfeit journals to exploit the open-access model in which the author pays” and publishers
that were “dishonest and lack transparency” (ibid.).
• Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE): “Predatory publishing is generally defined as for-
profit open-access journal publication of scholarly articles without the benefit of peer review by
experts in the field or the usual editorial oversight of the journals in question.”
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• A. Grudniewicz, et al.: “Predatory journals and publishers are entities that prioritize self-
interest at the expense of scholarship and are characterized by false or misleading information,
deviation from best editorial and publication practices, a lack of transparency, and/or the use of
aggressive and indiscriminate solicitation practices.” (Grudniewicz, et al., 2019).

Number of Predatory Journals

It is very difficult to enumerate the exact number of predatory journals, but Cabell’s blacklist of predatory
journals in 2018 listed 13,900 journals. Predatory journals are more in number from developing
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countries (Seethapathy, et al., 2016) but few studies indicate some publishers from developed countries
are also involved in predatory publications (Bohannon, 2013; Linacre, et al., 2019).

Characteristics of Predatory Journals

Predatory journals, which override standard publishing practices, can be identified with the following
characteristics (Beall, 2016, op. cit.).

Basic Information about the Journal

• Titles and websites of the standard journals are hijacked.
• Use of misleading words such as ‘International’, ‘Global’, ‘World journal’ ‘Äsian’, ‘American’, in the
titles, while the journals lack the international scope and editorial board.

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