Introduction, Predatory Publishing and Global Scholarly Communications (Chapter 1)

"The narrative of predatory publishing is a clash of the philosopher and the scientist. I believe these two opposing positions can be balanced without one negating the other. The philosopher* highlights how predatory publishing is an expression of racism in scholarly communications and is a false flag that distracts from the true predators—commercial publishers that monopolistically and excessively enrich themselves by monetizing scholarship as well as our privacy. The expression predatory publishing itself is considered problematic, if not offensive, and the binary nature of its conceptualization is inherently flawed. Scientists, however, focus on how predatory publishing is a problem that directly harms people: for example, patients who die from unsound medical treatment. They are also concerned about how predatory publishing damages science and medicine by disseminating methodologically flawed scholarship that does not adhere to basic ethical protocols; additionally, publishing in predatory journals results in the waste of grants funded by government monies...."