Donald Prothero discusses the rise of predatory online “junk” journals willing to publish any paper for money—even when the paper is composed entirely of the phrase, “Get me off your f*cking mailing list.”
But as more and more journals go to online-only publishing, and especially “open access” publishing (anyone can read online them for free), this cost barrier has nearly vanished—and with it, the incentives for rigorous peer review and quality control. In an effort to make more journals “open access,” many of the new electronic journals now charge the authors for the costs instead so that the content will forever be free and “gold open access.”