Comment on "Open is not forever: a study of vanished open access journals"

TL;DR

This paper discusses the disappearance of certain open access journals, suggesting that many may have been predatory, and explains the observed patterns through de-listing actions and regional awareness of predatory practices.

Contribution

It offers a critical perspective on the reasons behind journal disappearance, emphasizing the role of predatory journals and de-listing processes.

Findings

Many vanished journals were likely predatory.

De-listing from DOAJ contributed to journal disappearance.

Regional awareness influenced journal de-listing patterns.

Abstract

We comment on a recent article by Laakso et al. (arXiv:2008.11933 [cs.DL]), in which the disappearance of 176 open access journals from the Internet is noted. We argue that one reason these journals may have vanished is that they were predatory journals. The de-listing of predators from the Directory of Open Access Journals in 2014 and the abundance of predatory journals and awareness thereof in North America parsimoniously explain the temporal and geographic patterns Laakso et al. observed.