Re: U of T checklist to spot deceptive publishers becomes national resource

I'm uncertain about this.

If I write a novel that no publisher will touch, I can pay to get it put
out by a 'vanity publisher', and I can do my best to sell it. This seems to
me a perfectly acceptable practice.

Now if I write an article on the influence of Hesiod on Philo Judaeus, and
the usual publications consider that it's rubbish, why shouldn't I pay to
have it published by the grey publishing industry? I know I shall be made
to pay for it, perhaps quite a lot, but it will appear, and I can do my
best to get it read and noticed -- probably with some difficulty.

Maybe 90 per cent or more of the stuff that comes out in these dubious
journals really is rubbish. But surely there are also some decent articles
that have failed to make the grade because they contain novel ideas
unacceptable to the herd mentality of academia, or because the author's
political views have made him or her an unperson, as happens all too often
in these censorious times.

These pariah journals should at least be watched in case something
worthwhile emerges. There is always the chance of a new _De revolutionibus
orbium coelestium_.

RH