Final Words – Beall’s Rest-of-the-Story
Jeffrey Beall, who coined the term “predatory journal”, no longer works at the University of Colorado.
In February 2013, the open-access publisher Canadian Center for Science and Education sent a letter to Beall stating that Beall’s list, which mentioned the Canadian Center, was defamatory and threatened to subject him to “civil action”.
In 2013, the OMICS Publishing Group threatened to sue Beall for $1 billion for his “ridiculous, baseless, [and] impertinent” inclusion of them on his list, which “smacks of literal unprofessionalism and arrogance.” This would be the same OMIC which the FTC sued and received a court ordered injunction against in 2017.
The letter from OMICS to Beall said, in part: “Let us at the outset warn you that this is a very perilous journey for you and you will be completely exposing yourself to serious legal implications including criminal cases lunched [sic] against you in INDIA and USA.”
OMICS’ lawyers stated that damages were being pursued under section 66A of India’s Information Technology Act, 2000, which makes it illegal to use a computer to publish “any information that is grossly offensive or has menacing character” or to publish false information. The letter stated that three years in prison was a possible penalty, although a U.S. lawyer said that the threats seemed to be a “publicity stunt” that was meant to “intimidate.”
On January 15, 2017, the entire content of Beall’s Scholarly Open Access website was removed, along with Beall’s faculty page on the University of Colorado’s website.
The University of Colorado declared that the decision to take down the list was a personal decision from Beall. Beall later wrote that he had taken down his blog because of pressure from the University of Colorado, which threatened his job security.
Beall is now retired.
The work he started, however, not only continues, but is growing thanks to such top researchers as those whose work is published in the November 2018 issue of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. Again, the title of the new study is: Predatory Publishing in Orthopaedic Research.
