Dear Dr Khan,
Thanks for your comments.
Part of what you write seems to indicate that you believe I’m indentical with Dr Beall – this is not the case.
One remark I’d like to make on new publishers: There are already so many journals that I believe one should have a clearly defined scope when creating a new one. I’m not saying that the big publishing companies shouldn’t have competitors. But let’s not forget that also big publishers like Elsevier and Springer started with only a few journals, and grew mainly as a result of buying other publishers. My point is that most successful journals have been created individually or in small groups, by individuals who knew their subject, often in association with scientific societies. Many OA editors in Beall’s list have launched dozens, if not over a hundred journals at the same time. I don’t believe serious scientists would proceed in this way. On the other hand I could name examples of independent journals which are successful. Some of them are open access and have no publication charges, because they get some support by institutions.
