Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
latrobe.edu.au CRICOS Provider 00115M
Predatory publishing: pitfalls for the unwary!
Simon Huggard Digital Infrastructure Manager Sharon Karasmanis Faculty Librarian and Team Leader (Health Sciences)
Library Research Forum, 25 October 2013
2 La Trobe University 2
Predatory Publishers:
• Gold Open Access Model has created opportunities for corrupt publishers to flourish
• Open Access mandates have spawned more of these recently, with a huge increase in reports of questionable email requests
• Only exist to extract author processing fees (often only charging when the manuscript accepted)
• Take advantage of authors who want to publish in Open Access journals, note: new PhD graduates targeted!
3 La Trobe University 3
Predatory publishers – some characteristics:
• Use similar names to well known publications (e.g. IJCEE: International Journal of Civil & Environemental Engineering vs International Journal of Environmental Engineering)
• Websites littered with grammatical errors
• No peer-review process or bogus reviewer details
• Spam researchers, soliciting manuscripts but failing to mention required author fee. After the paper is published, authors are invoiced typically US$1,800
• List bogus contact details (tricky to spot!)
4 La Trobe University 4
How can you check?
• Look for publishers verifiable contact details, be cautious if only a web form is provided!
• Does the editorial board list recognised experts with affiliations
• Check that author fees are prominently displayed
• Be wary of email invitations
• Read previous papers and assess the quality
• Check peer-review process is clearly described, try to confirm if the displayed impact factor is correct!
5 La Trobe University 5
More on checking:
• Check Beall’s list of Predatory Publishers
• scholarlyoa.com/2012/12/06/bealls-list-of-predatory-publishers-2013/
• Further reading:
• LibGuide on Predatory Publishing in: latrobe.libguides.com/journalimpact
• Butler, D. (2013). Investigating journals: the dark side of publishing, Nature, 495(7442), 433-435. (Describes the emergence of predatory publishing
and provides an alternate view of the Beall’s list)
• Bohannon, J. (2013). Who’s afraid of peer-review? Science, 342. (Spoof paper concocted by Science reveals little scrutiny by some predatory journals)
6 La Trobe University 6
• Upload a submitted manuscript or postprint of your article to Research Online (LTU research repository)
• Article will be available freely online
• No article processing fees
• Contact [email protected]
Consider Green Open Access!
7 La Trobe University 7
One example:
8 La Trobe University 8
9 La Trobe University 9
Predatory/bogus publishers
10 La Trobe University 10
Where to Publish: evaluating journals
• What are the main issues?
• Publishing in high impact scholarly journals
• Selecting journals relevant to your discipline
• Where are other experts in your discipline publishing?
• Identifying a journal in consideration of ERA, FoR codes and impact factors
• Ensuring your research is reaching relevant audiences
11 La Trobe University 11
What quality factors should I look for?
• Use a range of criteria and compare with other journals in the same category
• Quantitative and qualitative assessments such as:
• Journal impact factors
• Indexing and abstracting services
• Relevance to your discipline
• Ranking within your discipline
• Peer review process
12 La Trobe University 12
A range of Library resources are available: (under Databases Tab)
• Journal Citation Reports (JCR)
• Eigenfactor calculation
• Scopus Journal Analyzer (SJR)
• SCImago (uses SJR data)
• InCites
• Further guidance available:
• latrobe.libguides.com/journalimpact
13 La Trobe University 13
• Contact your Faculty Librarian
• latrobe.edu.au/library/contact-us
• Research Education and Development (RED)
• latrobe.edu.au/research/red
• Research Services
• latrobe.edu.au/research-services
