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Predatory journals and the
impact on the scholarly
publishing community
UNISA Research & Innovation Week, March & August 2015
Mariëtte Enslin & Sibabalwe Oscar Masinyana
Taylor & Francis Africa
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Defining Open Access
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Just to clarify…defining Open Access
(OA)
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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
archiving / deposit of an earlier version of an article in a repository
Two elements: 1) making content freely available online to read
2) Making content reusable by third parties with little or no restrictions
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….
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Defining OA cont.
Focus on clarity – our video defines Gold and Green OA in 90 seconds See www.tandfonline.com/page/openaccess for more OA information
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Defining Predatory Open
Access
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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 6
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Characteristics
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Friend or foe?
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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 9
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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
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Impact of Predatory OA
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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
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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
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Damages the scholarly journal
publishing value chain
Author publishes ms
PREDATORY JOURNAL
LEGITIMATE JOURNAL
No opportunity for improvement, vetting PEER REVIEW & VALUE
Improved ms after peer review,
copy-editing
Readership, citations
New research building upon what was published
Conclusion
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Main points to carry forward
• Don't blame the predatory journals - 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
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Sources and useful reading: • How to target a journal that’s right for your research. Ravi
Murugesan, SciDevNet, 15 Dec 2014. http://www.scidev.net/global/publishing/practical-guide/target-journal-right-research-communicate-publish.html
• Scholarly Open Access: Critical Analysis of Scholarly Open-Access Publishing. Jeffrey Beall. http://scholarlyoa.com/
• Predatory Publishing. Jeffrey Beall, The Scientist, 1 Aug 2012. http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/32426/title/Predatory-Publishing/
• Predatory publishers: the bane of open access publishing. Carina van Zyl, CSIR, 20 October 2014. http://liasa.org.za/sites/default/files/notices/Carina%20van%20Zyl%20-%20HSRC%20talk-Predatory%20publishers-15Oct2014.pdf
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Thank you!
Mariette Enslin & Sibabalwe Oscar Masinyana
Taylor & Francis Africa
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @TandF_Africa
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