Predatory Publications

Ex Libris and ProQuest are aware of the phenomenon of so-called "predatory" publications – that charge high fees to authors to publish their articles and claim to ensure peer-review, but whose practices are questionable – and the concern across the academic and scholarly community that some of these publications represent themselves as legitimate Open Access resources. Identification and screening of these and other “vanity” titles is complicated by the fact that some have obtained abstracting and indexing coverage in commercial services. 

In 2022 we undertook a project to remove predatory publications from the CDI that were in the Beall’s List of Predatory Journals and Publishers (https://beallslist.net/).  

There are several issues the library community now faces regarding predatory publications: 

• Beall’s List is no longer actively maintained. There is no obvious trusted successor to the list. 

• The Ex Libris team doesn’t have the capacity or authority to vet reported publications. 

• Libraries differ on treatment of these publication, e.g. removing them from the CDI altogether vs. marking them as potentially predatory. 

Ultimately this is a problem that the industry needs to address. We will consult with the Content Working Group for guidance before implementing any solution(s).