Science, 4 October 2013, Vol. 342 no. 6154, pp. 60-65. DOI: 10.1126/science.342.6154.60 John Bohannon's article "Who's Afraid of Peer Review?" reveals the lack of scrutiny in many open-access journals. He created a fake paper and submitted it to 304 open-access journals, finding that over half accepted it without reviewing its flaws. The paper described a chemical extracted from lichen with anticancer properties, but the experiments were flawed. The journal, Journal of Natural Pharmaceuticals, accepted it after minor changes, despite its scientific content being flawed. The article highlights the lack of transparency in open-access publishing. The journal's publisher, Medknow, is based in India and was bought by Wolters Kluwer, a multinational firm. The journal's editor, Ilkay Orhan, admitted to not being involved in the journal's operations and said he should have been more careful. The article also discusses the predatory open-access publishers, which charge high fees for publication without proper peer review. Jeffrey Beall's list of predatory publishers includes many that have managed to get into the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). The article shows that many open-access journals do not perform proper peer review, leading to the acceptance of flawed papers. The article also discusses the case of Aline Noutcha, a Nigerian scientist who was asked to pay a $150 publication fee for a paper she submitted to an open-access journal. She eventually paid the fee through a friend in the United States. The article concludes that the open-access model has led to a proliferation of low-quality journals, and that the scientific community must work to ensure that journals perform proper peer review. The article also highlights the need for greater transparency and accountability in open-access publishing.Science, 4 October 2013, Vol. 342 no. 6154, pp. 60-65. DOI: 10.1126/science.342.6154.60 John Bohannon's article "Who's Afraid of Peer Review?" reveals the lack of scrutiny in many open-access journals. He created a fake paper and submitted it to 304 open-access journals, finding that over half accepted it without reviewing its flaws. The paper described a chemical extracted from lichen with anticancer properties, but the experiments were flawed. The journal, Journal of Natural Pharmaceuticals, accepted it after minor changes, despite its scientific content being flawed. The article highlights the lack of transparency in open-access publishing. The journal's publisher, Medknow, is based in India and was bought by Wolters Kluwer, a multinational firm. The journal's editor, Ilkay Orhan, admitted to not being involved in the journal's operations and said he should have been more careful. The article also discusses the predatory open-access publishers, which charge high fees for publication without proper peer review. Jeffrey Beall's list of predatory publishers includes many that have managed to get into the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). The article shows that many open-access journals do not perform proper peer review, leading to the acceptance of flawed papers. The article also discusses the case of Aline Noutcha, a Nigerian scientist who was asked to pay a $150 publication fee for a paper she submitted to an open-access journal. She eventually paid the fee through a friend in the United States. The article concludes that the open-access model has led to a proliferation of low-quality journals, and that the scientific community must work to ensure that journals perform proper peer review. The article also highlights the need for greater transparency and accountability in open-access publishing.