Last 15 January 2017, it was revealed that the Scholarly Open Access managed by Jeffrey Beall, a librarian and an associate professor at the University of Colorado Denver has been wiped off.
Created in 2008, the website has been a useful resource for many researchers, especially to those who are just starting to get their works published. Beall developed a set of 52 criteria which he used to ascertain what makes a journal predatory. This criteria helped him compile a list of potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open access publishers.
The University of Colorado Denver confirmed in a statement that the academic has “decided to no longer maintain or publish his research or blog on open access journals and ‘predatory publishers.’” The university said it “understands and respects” Beall’s decision to take down his website. He remains on the faculty at the university, the statement said, and he “will be pursuing new areas of research.”
Although no reasons were given for the website’s removal, it is suspected that Beall was force to shut down his website due to threats and politics.
