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Where is the line between “new journal” and “predatory journal”? Each time I read an article such as this one, I get the sense that there is no room for new pl

Where is the line between “new journal” and “predatory journal”? Each time I read an article such as this one, I get the sense that there is no room for new players.

macleginn 3y ago
Of course. I was involved in starting several scientific periodicals, and a decent new journal can easily check most of the boxes on https://thinkchecksubmit.org https://thinkchecksubmit.org right away: publish contact and publisher info, spell out the reviewing policy and ethics guidelines, apply to be included in DOAJ, etc. Getting into Scopus or Web of Knowledge is a bit trickier: you must show that you can consistently publish on schedule, so you need to find people willing to submit articles for the first several issues, i.e. articles that would be properly indexed only much later on (inclusion into Scopus and WoK works retroactively). The only real barrier to starting a new journal is having enough standing in the community to make people believe that the journal is here to stay and having enough money and human resources to maintain a website.
jfengel 3y ago
The difference is that new journals are seeking readers, while predatory journals seek only writers. A genuine new journal is created by experts in the field, for the purpose of communicating between each other. A predatory journal is created by publishers, with minimal expertise in the field (often none). If nobody is reading the journal, then it exists solely for the purpose of gathering fees in exchange for the ability to put it on your CV. The limiting factor for a new journal is who is interested in reading it. That happens when a new field opens up (or more often, when some sub-field becomes active enough that the contributors find it useful to carve it out). There is also a need for new kinds of journals, to manage the workload of knowing what things people should read. There are a lot of experiments going on there, trying to solve the mismatch between the sheer amount of work being done and the limited time for keeping up. But the predatory journals don't care if anybody is reading them at all.

Where is the line between “new journal” and “predatory journal”? Each time I read an article such as this one, I get the sense that there is no room for new players.

macleginn 3y ago

Of course. I was involved in starting several scientific periodicals, and a decent new journal can easily check most of the boxes on https://thinkchecksubmit.org https://thinkchecksubmit.org right away: publish contact and publisher info, spell out the reviewing policy and ethics guidelines, apply to be included in DOAJ, etc. Getting into Scopus or Web of Knowledge is a bit trickier: you must show that you can consistently publish on schedule, so you need to find people willing to submit articles for the first several issues, i.e. articles that would be properly indexed only much later on (inclusion into Scopus and WoK works retroactively). The only real barrier to starting a new journal is having enough standing in the community to make people believe that the journal is here to stay and having enough money and human resources to maintain a website.

jfengel 3y ago

The difference is that new journals are seeking readers, while predatory journals seek only writers. A genuine new journal is created by experts in the field, for the purpose of communicating between each other. A predatory journal is created by publishers, with minimal expertise in the field (often none). If nobody is reading the journal, then it exists solely for the purpose of gathering fees in exchange for the ability to put it on your CV. The limiting factor for a new journal is who is interested in reading it. That happens when a new field opens up (or more often, when some sub-field becomes active enough that the contributors find it useful to carve it out). There is also a need for new kinds of journals, to manage the workload of knowing what things people should read. There are a lot of experiments going on there, trying to solve the mismatch between the sheer amount of work being done and the limited time for keeping up. But the predatory journals don't care if anybody is reading them at all.