Jeffrey Beall, who coined the term "predatory open access publishing," is a Scholarly Communications Librarian at the University of Colorado-Denver. Beall studies scholarly open access publishing. Until January of 2017, he maintained a list of individual journals and publishers he viewed as "potentially predatory". His blog, Scholarly Open Access, existed from 2012 to 2017.
While Beall has been viewed as an expert on the topic of predatory publishing, he is also a controversial figure who has criticized the open access publishing model. He has argued that the "author pays" model has created an opportunity for predatory publishers. Beall's critics have expressed concerns about his lack of support for the open access movement and a lack of transparency regarding his "predatory" criteria for evaluating journals and publishers.
Beall abruptly stopped maintaining Scholarly Open Access on January 16, 2017. Across the country, many have debated the reasons for the sudden shutdown of his important blog. However, in May of 2017, Beall published What I Learned from Predatory Publishers. In the article, he states his reasons for ending his blog:
"In January 2017, facing intense pressure from my employer, the University of Colorado Denver, and fearing for my job, I shut down the blog and removed all its content from the blog platform." (Beall, 2017)
Due to its reputation, Beall's list remains a go-to for many academics who wish to check the status of a suspect journal. However, since it has not been updated since 2017, it should not be relied on if one is unsure whether they have encountered a predatory publication or not. If you are unsure about whether a journal or publisher is predatory, then your best option is to contact your librarians for assistance.
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