The Internet Archive recently sent out an email warning that “between 2000-2019, more than 176 open access journals have literally disappeared,” with many more at risk. My first thought was to hope that many of the vanished were titles from predatory publishers scamming academics, gone bust or moved on to greener pastures. 1
It seems not. How the Internet Archive is Ensuring Permanent Access to Open Access Journal Articles, as I read it, says that the Internet Archive is working with librarians and archivists who, presumably, know a scam journal when they see one.
The lack of public access to the results of publicly-funded research has existed for far too long now. I'm glad there are other publicly-funded operations, like the Internet Archive, who are working to redress the balance.
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Of course the academics may have been scamming institutions too, with a long list of “publications” that a genuine journal would not have considered. ↩
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