Q. Do we have access to Cabell's Predatory Reports?

The Penn State Libraries does not currently subscribe to Cabell's Predatory Reports. This product, launched in 2017, is a list of journals Cabell's considers potentially predatory. This product was formerly known as Cabell's Blacklist. In June 2020, Cabell's changed the name of its previous Whitelist and Blacklist to Journalytics and Predatory Reports, respectively. Cabells describes Predatory Reports as "the only database of deceptive and predatory academic journals."

As you may know, there was a previous list that attempted to classify journals as possibly predatory. This was called Beall's List and was maintained by Jeffrey Beall, a librarian at the University of Colorado. This list is no longer available and Cabell's Predatory Reports attempts to do something similar. Beall's list was the subject of controversy as some journals and publishers ended up on his list that probably shouldn't have been there, and some journals/publishers that should have been on the list were not. Additionally, just because a journal is poorly run or unpopular, that does not mean it is predatory or acting in bad faith - although, there are certainly some scam publishers out there that we all need to watch out for. Journals that are newer and haven't had time to build up an audience (and impact metrics) also tend to do poorly on lists like these, but being new doesn't mean they are poor choices as publication venues. 

The Libraries' guide on Predatory Publishing provides guidance on how to identify and avoid predatory publishers and other academic scams. Another useful resource is Think, Check, Submit.

When considering publication options, you may also want to consider the following resources:

• Journal Citation Reports provides quantitative data on citations in academic journals.
• Directory of Open Access Journals indexes high-quality, peer-reviewed open access journals.