Authors and readers beware the dark side of Open Access - Pickler - 2014 - Journal of Advanced Nursing - Wiley Online Library

"Open access publishing has expanded dramatically over the last decade. For the most part, this works to everyone's advantage, enabling important, cutting-edge science to get to readers sooner than by more traditional publication methods. JAN supports open access initiatives including its periodic Virtual Issues program and providing a full open access publication option. Many journals and respectable publishing houses offer similar choices and there are also open-access-only publishers whose publishing standards match those of JAN. However, this is not the case for all open access only publishers. The concept of predatory publishing has emerged from the open access publishing movement. The term ‘predatory open access,’ was introduced by University of Colorado librarian and researcher Jeffrey Beall, identifying the practices of some ‘publishing companies’ of soliciting papers from authors for ‘publication’ in journals that lack acceptable peer review, editorial oversight, or established procedures to protect against plagiarism, data duplication or other unethical practices. The difference between acceptable open access publishers and predatory publishers is that, while both operate on a pay-to-publish business model, predatory publishers do not follow many if not all acceptable publication standards. Predatory publishers have been known to claim to be ‘leading’ publishers even though they may be just starting. They list contact information that does not clearly indicate where they are located or use free email services for contact. Often, multiple journals from the same publisher will have the same editor and editorial board, and there have been reports of board members being appointed to these panels without their application or knowledge. These publishers do not participate in or have membership of customary organizations such as the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE; http://publicationethics.org/) or the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE; http://www.icmje.org/about-icmje/) ..."