Another Publisher Threatens Suit Against A Librarian For Blog Comments

What is it with Canadian plaintiffs and libel lawsuits against librarians?  Inside Higher Ed reports that the Canadian Center for Science and Education (CCSE) is threatening to sue Jeffrey Beall, associate professor and scholarly initiatives librarian at the University of Colorado Denver over inclusion in a list of predatory publishers.  Beall’s criteria are fairly extensive, but include elements such as an author having to pay for publication; a questionable editorial staff; vague contact information; editorial practices that do not match those from publisher associations; and evidence of author misconduct such as plagiarism.  The CCSE takes umbrage that some of its titles makes Beall’s list.  The letter states that being on the list leads to a natural tendency to injure our client’s reputation” and promises legal action in a California court. 

This is on the heels of the Edwin Mellen Press suing librarian Dale Askey, associate librarian at McMaster University in Canada with similar accusations.  See previous LLB posts The Curious Case of Edwin Mellen Press and Academic Librarian Sued For Dissing Publisher In A Blog Post for more details and opinion.  More recent developments on the Edwin Mellen press case are available in this article from the Chronicle of Higher Education and this one from Inside Higher Ed.  I recommend the comments from both stories. 

I can’t speak for the Canadian litigation but anything done in the United States would likely lead to discovery requests aimed at author contracts, editorial practices and the like.  I think this may be another “be careful what you ask for” situation.  [MG]