A PhD in the Phrenology of Earthworms: predatory publisher "best practices"

Have you ever wondered how easy it is to publish in a so-called predatory journal? Check out this news story from the Ottawa Citizen, where a reporter got accepted to be a journal's editor listing their credentials as a PhD in the Phrenology of Earthworms. The new journal editor then accepted a scathing editorial of the same journal, written in scientific jargon (and authored by the Ottawa Citizen!), for publication.

Predatory journals pose as valid open access journals, but have none of the same editorial standards in place as the many high-quality, highly-cited open access journals. See Scholarly Publishing for information on the process of evaluating open access publishing choices.