In
academic publishing,
predatory open access publishing describes an exploitative
open-access publishing business model that involves charging
publication fees to authors without providing the editorial and publishing services associated with legitimate
journals (open access or not). "Beall's List", a regularly-updated report by
Jeffrey Beall, sets forth criteria for categorizing predatory publications and lists publishers and independent journals that meet those criteria. Newer scholars from developing countries are said to be especially at risk of becoming the victim of these practices.