[Forwarding this on behalf of Glenn Hampson, whose posts are not getting to the list for some reason…] From: Glenn Hampson Sent: Thursday, February 5, 2026 8:11 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: RE: [OPENCAFE-L] A sobering milestone (FW: Press Release: Cabells’ Predatory Reports Database Hits 20,000 Deceptive Journals) Hi Rick, Lisa, Everyone, For your consideration, there are a probably a couple other explanations for this increase. One is that Cabell’s just started building its resource nine years ago. The number of listings it includes has crept up over time as a function of the hard work it’s doing. The second explanation is that over this period, the number of journal articles published annually has gone from around 2.5 million-ish to around 5 million-ish. So in terms of percentages, the amount of “predatory” (or whatever) work may be roughly the same (although it makes sense that an explosion of publishing ---which will include both good and bad outputs---is on the horizon given how easy writing has become with AI). FWIW, here are two oldies but goodies from OSI that give (I think) a good overview of this issue: OSI-Infographic-2.0.pdf<https://sci.institute/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/OSI-Infographic-2.0.pdf> (an overview of the how deceptive publishing fits into the publishing ecosystem) OSI Brief: Deceptive publishing | The Science Communication Institute<https://sci.institute/osi/osi-reports/osi-issue-briefs/2019/03/osi-brief-deceptive-publishing/> (written by Rick in 2019) Best regards, Glenn Glenn Hampson Executive Director Science Communication Institute (SCI)<sci.institute> [cid:image001.jpg@01DC9676.CD5B91F0] From: OpenCafe-l <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> On Behalf Of Lisa Hinchliffe Sent: Thursday, February 5, 2026 6:55 AM To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Subject: Re: [OPENCAFE-L] A sobering milestone (FW: Press Release: Cabells’ Predatory Reports Database Hits 20,000 Deceptive Journals) FWIW. Lisa Why do authors publish in predatory journals? by Serhat Kurt Learned Publishing First published: 18 January 2018 https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.1150 This study examines the reasons why authors publish in ‘predatory’ OA journals. In total, 50 journals were randomly selected from Beall's list of ‘predatory’ journals. Different methods, including WHOIS tracking, were utilized to query basic information about the selected journals, including location and registrant. Then, 300 articles were randomly selected from within selected journals in various scientific fields. Authors of the selected articles were contacted and sent survey questions to complete. A grounded theory qualitative methods approach was used for data collection and analysis. The results demonstrated that most of these journals were located in the developing world, usually Asia or Africa, even when they claimed they were in the USA or UK. Furthermore, four themes emerged after authors’ survey responses were coded, categorized, and sub-categorized. The themes were: social identity threat, unawareness, high pressure, and lack of research proficiency. Scholars in the developing world felt that reputable Western journals might be prejudiced against them and sometimes felt more comfortable publishing in journals from the developing world. Other scholars were unaware of the reputation of the journals in which they published and would not have selected them had they known. However, some scholars said they would still have published in the same journals if their institution recognised them. The pressure to ‘publish or perish’ was another factor influencing many scholars’ decisions to publish in these fast-turnaround journals. In some cases, researchers did not have adequate guidance and felt they lacked the knowledge of research to submit to a more reputable journal. More needs to be done by institutions and reputable journals to make researchers aware of the problem of ‘predatory’ journals. ___ Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> On Thu, Feb 5, 2026 at 8:49 AM Rick Anderson <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote: Hi, Brooks — I have no hard data or evidence on this, but my suspicion is that it’s a mix of factors, including: * Money-laundering (I see no reason to doubt that this is one element) * A very large and constantly growing number of tenure-seeking authors who may not need to publish “a paper a day,” but who do need one or two more legitimate-looking articles to pad out their CVs, and who see placement in a predatory journal as a quick and easy way to achieve that * Unethical researchers and corporate shills looking to create what will look on the surface like genuine scientific support for their products or crackpot theories One of the things that makes predatory publishing work is that a citation to a fake paper in a fraudulent journal looks exactly like a citation to a real paper in a real journal. Few search committee or tenure committee members are going to go through a candidate’s entire CV and look closely at every article listed, which means the risk for an author is relatively low. And, of course, the general public generally knows little or nothing about the vagaries of scholarly publishing, and tends to take citations (and phrases like “studies show”) at face value. All of these factors, combined with the low APCs charged by most predatory journals, create real incentives for authors to take advantage of their services — and therefore real incentives for more and more “publishers” to offer them. Rick --- Rick Anderson University Librarian Brigham Young University (801) 422-4301 [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> From: Comcast <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> Date: Thursday, February 5, 2026 at 7:23 AM To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> Cc: Rick Anderson <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> Subject: Re: [OPENCAFE-L] A sobering milestone (FW: Press Release: Cabells’ Predatory Reports Database Hits 20,000 Deceptive Journals) Thanks Rick. Something has never added up to me and I find myself seconding something Kent Anderson noticed. The finances don’t make sense completely. Sure some authors pay for fake papers and risk exposure and disgrace. Some companies are using these for advertising and fake news or even disinformation. They risk exposure too. More are getting caught. But the scale is well beyond that and the money flow is huge. So who is funneling lots of apc cash to fake publishers and why? Where is this money coming from? And then going? Is it all authors who like to publish a paper a day and spend money to pad obviously padded cvs. I doubt it. Kent suggested laundering I think. Hmmm. The 20000 journals suggest it’s whack-a-mole. Cheers Brooks Sent from my iPad On Feb 4, 2026, at 11:29, Rick Anderson <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote: Here’s a sobering announcement from Cabell’s, publisher of Predatory Reports — to date the most rigorously documented and curated database of deceptive journals and publishers. The problem of predatory publishing continues to grow, and (in my view<https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2018/08/07/denialism-rocks-just-got-lot-harder-pretend-predatory-publishing-doesnt-matter/>) to be under-discussed in the research library space. --- Rick Anderson University Librarian Brigham Young University (801) 422-4301 [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> From: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of Michael Bisaccio via groups.io<http://groups.io> <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> Date: Wednesday, February 4, 2026 at 9:21 AM To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> Subject: [LIBLICENSE-L] Press Release: Cabells’ Predatory Reports Database Hits 20,000 Deceptive Journals Cabells’ Predatory Reports Database Hits 20,000 Deceptive Journals FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BEAUMONT, TX: Cabells<https://cabells.com/> – a US-based information services company – now includes over 20,000 journals in its Predatory Reports<https://cabells.com/solutions/predatory-reports> database, with the unique resource growing by over 300% since its launch in 2017. After hitting the 10,000 mark in 2019 and 15,000 in 2021<https://blog.cabells.com/2021/09/01/mountain-to-climb/>, a recent upgrade in the technology governing the database has allowed for further journals to be added in recent months, which has pushed Predatory Reports to its new mark. As of January 30, 2026, there are 20,274 journals included in the database, allowing customers an unrivalled ability to check sources, references and journal submission options to help ensure the veracity of the academic record. Journals are included in Predatory Reports if they meet some of the 70+ criteria<https://cabells.com/predatory-criteria-v1.1> Cabells’ team of experts employ to judge if a journal is deceptive or not. Predatory journals are often fake as well as seeking to dupe authors into paying for publication, usually giving the appearance of legitimate peer-reviewed journals, and impacting academic stakeholders by exploiting the open access model while using misleading tactics to solicit article submissions. Predatory Reports is complemented by Journalytics Academic<https://cabells.com/solutions/journalytics-academic> and Journalytics Medicine<https://cabells.com/solutions/journalytics-medicine>, curated databases of over 13,000 and 9,000 journals, respectively, which have been verified as reputable academic journals. Together with Predatory Reports, they provide publication information, metrics, and analytics to enable scholars identify the most appropriate journals in which to publish research to maximize impact. Commenting on the milestone, Cabells Chief Executive Officer Lacey Earle said: “As this new milestone shows, the increasing activity from predatory publishers to con academic researchers and defraud funders shows no sign of stopping, particularly as generative AI technologies make the creation of academic content easier than ever. In order to navigate this increasingly difficult landscape, Predatory Reports supports funders, publishers, academics and their institutions to verify journal options and avoid the range of deceptions represented by predatory journals.” For more information, visit https://cabells.com<https://cabells.com/> or our blog site https://blog.cabells.com<https://blog.cabells.com/>. PR Contacts Simon Linacre, Chief Commercial Officer, Cabells Email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Mike Bisaccio, Director of Marketing and Communications, Cabells Email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> About Cabells Cabells generates actionable intelligence on academic journals for research professionals. On the Journalytics platform, an independent, curated database of more than 22,000 verified scholarly journals, researchers draw from the intersection of expertise, data, and analytics to make confident decisions to better administer research. In Predatory Reports, Cabells has undertaken the most comprehensive and detailed campaign against predatory journals, currently reporting on deceptive behaviors of over 20,000 publications. By combining its efforts with those of researchers, academic publishers, industry organizations and other service providers, Cabells works to create a safe, transparent, and equitable publishing ecosystem that can nurture generations of knowledge and innovation. For more information, please visit Cabells or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Bluesky and Facebook. _._,_._,_ The following attachments were removed because they exceeded your subscription's maximum attachment size limit. You can adjust this limit in your subscription settings. [Paperclip Icon] image.png Download it here<https://groups.io/g/liblicense-l/sattachment/1989683222346100693/262253014/0/0eafc0c1ffac223deac256dc652e396c1e6650c6cf346aeb466f57a5be132351> ________________________________ Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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