There have always been publishers that take advantage of uninformed authors or readers by selling them low-quality services or products at inflated prices. However, the Gold open access (OA) model, with its high processing fees, lends itself to a particular type of abuse called predatory publishing.
There is no clear-cut definition of exactly what predatory publishing is. One definition, published in Nature, states that predatory publishers are "entities that prioritize self-interest at the expense of scholarship and are characterized by false or misleading information, deviation from best editorial and publication practices, a lack of transparency, and/or the use of aggressive and indiscriminate solicitation practices.” In practice, predatory publishers all share some common characteristics:
It is important to note that while most predatory journals are gold OA, most gold OA journals are NOT predatory and some very prestigious journals, like PLOS One are gold OA.
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