Deceptive publishing and the impact on the scholarly publishing community SA PhD Project Conference 2016 Salomé Teuteberg Taylor & Francis Africa 1
Defining Open Access 2
Deceptive Publishing/Predatory Journals March 2016 screen 3 Just to clarify defining Open Access (OA) OA content still undergoes peer review Gold OA final article (Version of Record) Article made freely available online (often but not always after payment of an article publishing charge (APC)) Green OA A profusion of confusion Myriad terms used to define Open Access, often contradictory! We now talk about Gold and Green, but each have different shades. Two elements: 1) making content freely available online to read 2) Making content reusable by third parties with little or no restrictions archiving / deposit of an earlier version of an article in a repository 3
Defining Deceptive/Predatory Open Access 4
Deceptive Publishing/Predatory Journals March 2016 screen 5 Why Predatory? "Predatory publishers use deception to appear legitimate, entrapping researchers into submitting their work and then charging them to publish it" Jeffrey Beall Internationally, increasing need to publish quota of research for graduation/promotion Demand exceeding supply (legitimate journals) entrepreneurs seeing excess demand, providing a quick solution Able to exploit this situation via 2 main routes: Victims: Lack of author awareness, esp. dev. countries Co-conspirators: knowingly wanting immediate, unethical results Aggressive or predatory in soliciting submissions 5
Deceptive Publishing/Predatory Journals March 2016 screen 6 Scam operators T&F has recently had a case where a false journal website was set up with the name of a T&F title, plus a false society site with the name of the learned society who own the real journal Authors were written to with those websites embedded in message, offering to guarantee publication of article in that society journal if an OA fee was sent Luckily, author looked at our website and checked with editor and T&F directly We have taken legal action and finally got sites taken down expensive to pursue across countries!
Deceptive Publishing/Predatory Journals March 2016 screen 7 Characteristics 7
Friend or foe? 8
Deceptive Publishing/Predatory Journals March 2016 screen 9 First Response: Beall s List Potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open-access journals and publishers: 9
Deceptive Publishing/Predatory Journals March 2016 screen 10 First Response: Beall s List 10
Deceptive Publishing/Predatory Journals March 2016 screen 11 From Predatory to Deceptive 11
Think. Check. Submit. A publishing industry initiative which aims to help you make informed choices, and choose trusted journals to publish your research Provides you with a toolkit to assess whether the journal you plan to submit to is appropriate for your work, and is also a respected, reputable journal There is no definitive answer of which journals to avoid or submit to almost 1,000 new journals were launched in 2014, and with new titles launching almost daily it is almost impossible to stay on top of the latest journals in each field.
Deceptive Publishing/Predatory Journals March 2016 screen 13 Supporting Organisations Association of Learned & Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) BioMed Central Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) INASP ISSN International Centre Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche Association of European Research Libraries (LIBER) Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) Springer Nature International Association of STM Publishers (STM) Ubiquity Press UKSG 13
Deceptive Publishing/Predatory Journals March 2016 screen 14 Do you or your colleagues know the journal? Have you read any articles in the journal before? Is it easy to discover the latest papers in the journal? Can you easily identify and contact the publisher? Is the publisher name clearly displayed on the website? Can you contact publisher by telephone, email, and post? Is the journal clear about the type of peer review it uses? Are articles indexed in services that you use? Is it clear what fees will be charged? Does the journal site explain what these fees are for and when they will be charged? 14
Deceptive Publishing/Predatory Journals March 2016 screen 15 Do you recognise the editorial board? Have you heard of the editorial board members? Do the editorial board mention the journal on their own websites? Is the publisher a member of a recognized industry initiative? Do they belong to the Committee on Publication Ethics? If the journal is open access, is it listed in the DOAJ? If the journal is open access, does the publisher belong to the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA)? Is the publisher a member of another trade association? 15
Deceptive Publishing/Predatory Journals March 2016 screen 16 How do I differentiate them? Apply a rigorous academic process in selecting your journal! Interrogate info provided: does it translate into action, proof? Do you frequently read the journal? Have you cited it? Do leading scholars in the field publish in it, not just from your own institution or network? What value do they add? What are you paying for? What do reputable journals/publishers do beyond mere publication? Statement of publishing ethics, COPE membership Marketing and discoverability for your paper Digital content preservation, (C)LOCKSS 16
Deceptive Publishing/Predatory Journals March 2016 screen 17 Trust, Authority and Quality Validation of integrity of scholarly research, reinforced by: Journal brand; Editors and Board expertise; Publisher brand; and Society brand Society and Publisher brands increasingly important marks of trust, authority and peer review standards, scientific authority, especially in Open/Public Access world Journal brand still key signifier of authority, trust and quality standards enshrined in rigorous peer review. New peer review processes being experimented with pilots will provide evidence of popularity and effectiveness of new models 17
Impact of Deceptive OA 18
Deceptive Publishing/Predatory Journals March 2016 screen 19 Impact on you as researcher Longer term reputation and career prospects sacrificed for immediate gains. No academic gain (no peer review, value added) Permanent stain on your academic reputation Even if your research is sound, it will likely be disregarded by the academic community if published in a predatory journal Waste of your research funding could be held accountable by your funding agency 19
Deceptive Publishing/Predatory Journals March 2016 screen 20 Impact on the broader community Every good paper published in a predatory journal is one fewer keeping legitimate journals afloat No academic contribution being made, which no-one will then build upon & publish new research on Similarly: unethical practices such as using local journals for free manuscript improvement & then retracting a paper to submit internationally Authors are fuelling this damaging fire 20
Deceptive Publishing/Predatory Journals March 2016 screen 21 Damages the scholarly journal publishing value chain PREDATORY JOURNAL No opportunity for improvement, vetting PEER REVIEW & VALUE Author publishes ms New research building upon what was published Readership, citations LEGITIMATE JOURNAL Improved ms after peer review, copy-editing 21
Conclusion 22
Deceptive Publishing/Predatory Journals March 2016 screen 23 Main points to carry forward Don't blame the deceptive publishers - think critically and engage in your research community. Uphold publishing ethics yourself, don't do anything to compromise that as it will reflect on your career Not black and white - there is no single identifier or single list that can be used Always publish in journals that uphold international academic standards and have a statement of publishing ethics 23
Thank you! Salomé Teuteberg Taylor & Francis Africa Email: Africa@tandf.co.za Twitter: @TandF_Africa 24