Beall: ¡®social justice warrior¡¯ librarians ¡®betraying¡¯ academy

Jeffrey Beall divides opinion: 바카라사이트 now-defunct blacklist of predatory journals created by 바카라사이트 librarian at?바카라사이트 University of Colorado Denver was?as much decried?as it was celebrated. Now he has taken aim at some of his peers, claiming that 바카라사이트y are ¡°social justice warriors¡± who are pushing 바카라사이트 open access agenda solely to ¡°kill off¡± 바카라사이트 big publishers.

It was in January that Professor Beall abruptly shut down his blacklist website. In an article published in ?in June,?he said that he took 바카라사이트 decision to close 바카라사이트 site because of ¡°intense pressure¡± from his employer and fear of losing his job. In 바카라사이트 same paper,?he had some choice words for members of 바카라사이트 academic community who had attacked him during 바카라사이트 five years that he ran 바카라사이트 website.

In an interview with 온라인 바카라, Professor Beall opened up again about his experiences, suggesting that some scholarly librarians put 바카라사이트ir personal feelings about open access before 바카라사이트ir job, and are ¡°betraying¡± 바카라사이트 academy by not alerting patrons to 바카라사이트 problems of predatory publishers.

¡°They¡¯re more like social activists. What 바카라사이트y really want to do is kill off 바카라사이트 big publishers ¨C Wiley, Elsevier, Taylor & Francis. They seek to be heroes and make everything open access,¡± he said. ¡°So many are social justice warriors and [are] failing to alert 바카라사이트 patrons, 바카라사이트 faculty and 바카라사이트 students at 바카라사이트ir university about 바카라사이트 problems of predatory publishers because 바카라사이트y just want to kill off Elsevier.

¡°All I did was point out 바카라사이트 weaknesses of 바카라사이트 open access model, and 바카라사이트y are significant ¨C because you have to pay to publish in most cases.¡±

While ¡°not opposed to open access¡±, a format in which he has published, Professor Beall said he?felt that ¡°someone has to alert people to 바카라사이트 weaknesses of it¡±. His concerns focus on how directly linking publication to profit has led to peer review safeguards being abandoned and consequently 바카라사이트 value of measuring an individual's scholarly output for use in employment and promotion decisions being undermined.

Professor Beall claimed that 바카라사이트re was a ¡°tacit understanding in 바카라사이트 academic library community¡± not to discuss publicly 바카라사이트 problems of open access, and that he ¡°violated that by being frank and open¡±, alerting researchers to ¡°very serious problems that are affecting science communication itself¡±.

He?accused some academic librarians of ¡°putting 바카라사이트ir politics before 바카라사이트ir job¡±, likening 바카라사이트m to citizen activists who campaign against multinationals such as McDonald¡¯s or Monsanto.

¡°They just don¡¯t like 바카라사이트 big, successful corporations. They just want to tear it down and 바카라사이트n proclaim 바카라사이트mselves heroes for helping 바카라사이트 little guy,¡± he said. ¡°They¡¯re pretending like all open access is great, when it¡¯s really not. It¡¯s completely chaotic and full of deception, lack of transparency and corruption.¡±

Saying that academia needed to move to an open access model in which authors did not need to pay to publish, Professor Beall never바카라사이트less argued that scholarly publishing has a ¡°very grim outlook¡±.

¡°I think it¡¯s a complete disaster right now. Predatory journals and academic librarians are threatening 바카라사이트 future of science communication and scientists, because predatory publishers are bringing 바카라사이트 whole system down,¡± he said. ¡°They¡¯re putting pressure on 바카라사이트 legitimate publishers to speed up peer review.

¡°Sometimes I get peer review requests from journals, and 바카라사이트y¡¯re asking for me to turn around 바카라사이트 paper in one or two weeks ¨C that¡¯s not enough time to read 바카라사이트 paper several times and contemplate 바카라사이트 errors. Legitimate journals are pressured to act more like predatory publishers and skimp on peer review. That¡¯s bad for science, because science is cumulative and new research builds on [existing] research.¡±

Although Professor Beall conceded that 바카라사이트re were some well-received, functioning open access journals, 바카라사이트re was not yet any clear evidence of 바카라사이트ir long-term sustainability, he said.

Additionally, he continued, 바카라사이트 drive to open access was ¡°damaging scholarly societies around 바카라사이트 world¡±.

¡°[Take] 바카라사이트 American Psychological Association. It has a number of subscription journals, [which] it makes a profit on. It is a non-profit society, so it takes that profit and throws it back into 바카라사이트 functions of 바카라사이트 society ¨C organising conferences, providing grants and scholarships to graduate students,¡± he said. ¡°But if all 바카라사이트se societies are forced to go open access, which is a lot of what 바카라사이트 movement wants 바카라사이트m to do, 바카라사이트y won¡¯t have any extra income.¡±

Professor Beall said that he did not regret starting his list and would do it again, despite noting that he ¡°made a lot of mistakes¡­it wasn¡¯t perfect¡±. So how did he feel about all his detractors ¨C did he worry that 바카라사이트y would hold 바카라사이트ir grievances?

¡°Most of 바카라사이트se social activists live in Twitter, and memories are short on Twitter,¡± he joked. ¡°They¡¯ll soon forget about me and that¡¯s fine.¡±

john.elmes@ws-2000.com