ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the history, concept, and current conditions of predatory publishers in order to provide an understanding of their development from a geopolitical perspective, a socioeconomic perspective, and a legal viewpoint. By using examples to highlight the business models of some publishers, it focuses on typical practices of predatory publishers. The chapter also describes major legal challenges against, and by, some publishers. Efforts taken by a few countries to battle predatory publishing are outlined. The chapter expresses that although these countries have historically set unsuitable policies to pressure authors into scholarly publishing, which resulted in scientific misconduct, they have also recently changed their efforts by revising relevant policies to emphasize quality over quantity.
