THE PR

EDATORY

PUBLIS

HING

PHENOMEN

ON

A C T O R S , B Y S TA N D E R S , C

O N S E Q U E N C E S

REGINA ROMANO REYNOLDSDIRECTOR, U.S. ISSN CENTERLIBRARY OF CONGRESSUKSG, BOURNEMOUTH, 2016

BEALL’S DEFINITION

PREDATO

RY

“predatory” publishers—those that unprofessionally exploit the gold open-access model for their own profit. These publishers use deception to appear legitimate, entrapping researchers into submitting their work and then charging them to publish it.

J. Beall, The Scientist Aug 1, 2012

PREDATORY PRACTICES DESCRIBED BY BEALL*

• Attracting revenue by deceiving their authors, their readers, and/or those trying to evaluate the scholarly achievements of their authors.

• Honesty (does it falsely claim editorial board members or impact factors?)

• Business practices (does it engage in spam solicitations or steal content from reputable journals?), and

• Transparency (does it hide author charges until after manuscript acceptance or hide its content from search engines?). https://www.ufv.ca/media/assets/research/workshops/Criteria-for-Determining-Predatory-Publishers.pdf

WHO ARE THE PREDATORS?

•

PREDATORS?• Beall’s list? —controversial• Many publishers, open access or not? • Large commercial and society publishers? • Academics who edit predatory journals or

serve on their boards? • Academia’s“publish or perish” requirement?• Authors knowingly publishing in journals that

have names similar to well known journals?• Publishers who employ deceptive practices

solely to reap profits?

WHO IS BEING PREYED ON?

PREY?

Authors?

Scholars in DevelopingCountries?

Libraries?The Public?

THE DARK SIDE OF OPEN ACCESS:

TRUE TALES FROM THE U.S. ISSN CENTER

GOOGLE MAPS PHOTO:LOCATION OF A PUBLISHING OFFICE

GIVEN BY PUBLISHER TO NLM

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ACTIVE PREDATORY OPEN ACCESS JOURNALS FROM 2010-2014

Shen and Bjork, BMC Medicine(2015) 13:230

LONGEVITY?

LONGEVITY OBSERVATIONS (INFORMAL STUDIES BY KAREN ROSS, PROQUEST METADATA LIBRARIAN IN THE U.S. ISSN CENTER)• 77 journals from Beall’s list (from 22 publishers

chosen at random) were checked for continued existence (start dates between 2007 – 2015) • 50 were still in existence although some had

changed titles• Many of their earliest issues had fewer than 5

articles; • Now most had 10 – 12 articles per issue

• Beall’s list of ca 900 titles was checked to determine if the publisher URL was still in existence• 145 had non-working URLs, with perhaps 15 of

those changed URLs• Ca. 14% of the web sites could not be found

Informal conclusion: Far from disappearing as some might have thought, questionable publishers and their journals are largely persisting

PREDATO

RY

PUBLIS

HER?

SHOULD WE RETIRE THE TERM?

RICK ANDERSON

Acting in bad faith?

QuestionablePublisher?

Scam

publisher?

IT’S NOT SIMPLY “GOOD GUYS” VS. “BAD GUYS”

CONTINUUM

Clueless

AmateurDeceptive

Fraudulent

IT’S COMPLICATED!

ACTORS: ENABLERS, BYSTANDERS, IMPROVERS?

Academics

Peer reviewe

rs

Traditional

publishers

Governments

ISSN centers

Libraries & librarians

Professional

organizations

ECONOMIC REALITIES

Ease of Internet publishingGovernment mandates for open

accessGrowing numbers of scholars worldwide

Library support for open accessRequirement in developing

countries to publish in “international journals”Selectivity by mainstream

publishers

Growing numbers of authors + pressure to publish + ease of online publishing

= marketing opportunity publishing opportunity

Moral Panic?

A moral panic is a feeling of fear spread among a large number of people that some evil threatens the well-being of society. A Dictionary of Sociology defines a moral panic as "the process of arousing social concern over an issue – usually the work of moral entrepreneurs and the mass media.

Wikipedia

JOHN DUPUIS (CONFESSIONS OF A SCIENCE LIBRARIAN)• Is the “moral panic” over “predatory

publishing” overshadowing the failings of peer review and the subscription model?

• Retraction Watch examples• Should peer review be abolished?• Should journals be abolished in favor

of something like physics preprints?

MIGHT THE BLANKET LABEL “PREDATORY:”

HARM THE CAUSE OF OPEN ACCESS?

INHIBIT PUBLISHING IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES?

DEPRIVE SCIENCE AND SCHOLARSHIP OF DISCOVERIES AND INSIGHTS?

HOW CAN QUALITY OPEN ACCESS PREVAIL?

SOME DOAJ BASIC REQUIREMENTSURL must go straight to the journal home

pageAll content free without delays or embargos

“Business information pages” available at journals’ URL, not a

central pageJournal must have a dedicated web siteAt least one ISSNHome page must “demonstrate that care has

been taken to ensure high ethical and professional standards.” (Principles of

Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing)Editor and editorial board with

contact informationClear description of quality control system

(editorial or peer review) All publishing charges clearly stated

Open access policy clearly stated

PRINCIPLES OF TRANSPARENCY AND BEST PRACTICE IN SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING• Based on DOAJ requirements with some additions:

•Responsibility to identify and prevent papers giving evidence of research misconduct• Journal name should be unique and not misleading or easily confused with another journals•Solicitation of manuscripts should be appropriate, well targeted and unobtrusive

• Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)• Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA)• World Association of Medical Editors (WAME)

ROLE OF THE LIBRARIAN

A TALE OF TWO LIBRARIES: LC ISSN AND NLM

ISSN APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS FROM ISSN.ORG

d) We reserve the right to refuse an ISSN assignment if it is

considered that misleading information has been provided by the requestor or printed/displayed on the publication regarding, for instance: the place of publication (publisher’s address), the members of the editorial board, the referencing by indexing services or databases, the participation in digital preservation programs or the authorship of the articles provided.

e) We also reserve the right to revoke an ISSN if it subsequently comes to light that misleading information has been provided.

WHY ASSIGN ISSN AT ALL?• ISSN is first and foremost an identifier—

these publications need to be identified and distinguished from same or similar titles

• ISSN does not indicate quality or legitimacy any more than your social security number indicates that you are a good citizen

• ISSN helps to track these publications and see patterns, such as what has been presented about longevity and ubiquity

ISSUES OF LIFE OR DEATH

U.S. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINEEXCERPTS FROM COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT STATEMENT

A journal should demonstrate:quality of editorial workthe publisher and/or sponsoring organization’s history and corporate structure longevityrecord of performance regarding such issues as:

quality of publications, experience in scholarly publishing, involvement with the scientific community; disclosure of an adherence to print and online

publication standards, promotion of editorial integrity and independence.

NLM STRIVES FOR “GEOGRAPHIC HETEROGENEITY”

other periodicals—those that are not sources of original research—must be primarily biomedical in content to be considered for selection. The Library may make exceptions [for] geographic heterogeneity. For example, NLM may select basic science or social science journals from developing countries which often have little or no medical publishing per se.

ROLES ACADEMIA CAN PLAY?Raise awareness of

predatory practices and low quality journals

Assess publish or perish requirements

Assess value of open access journals

Evaluate journal quality vs. prestige

Scrutinize journal service as editors or on editorial

boards

Online publishing is also redefining traditional notions of academic prestige….

What this article describes as predatory journals may well in the future be seen as simply a natural part of the market. … A new era of due diligence is dawning for academics…

Keith McNaught, Journal of Electronic Publishing

Vol. 18, issue 3

IS PREDATORY PUBLISHING A NATURAL CONSEQUENCE OF

OPEN ACCESS?

IS SCI-HUB A CONSEQUENCE OF SUBSCRIPTION ONLY

ACCESS?

WHERE DOES THE FUTURE OF SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION

LIE?

…the problems caused by predatory journals are rather limited and regional and believe that the publishing volumes in such journals will cease growing in the near future. Open access publishing is rapidly gaining momentum… this should create better opportunities for researchers from countries where predatory publishing is currently popular, to get published in journals of higher quality, in particular since most journals have a policy to waive APC’s for authors from developing countries.

Shen and Bjork

TEMPORARY INCONVENIENCE; PERMANENT IMPROVEMENT?

Thank you!rrey@loc.gov

ARTICLES CITEDRick Anderson, “Should we Retire the Term,

“Predatory Publishing?” The Scholarly Kitchen, May 11, 2015

J. Beall, “Predatory Publishing,” The Scientist, August 1, 2012

John Dupuis, “Some perspecitve on ‘predatory’ open access journals, Confessions of a Science Librarian, March 31, 2015

Keith McNaught, “The Changing Publication Practices in Academia: Inherent Users and Issues in Open Access and online Publishing and the Rise of Fraudulent Publications,” Journal of Electronic Publishing, Vol. 18, Issue 3: on Access, Summer 2015

Cenyu Shen and Bo-Christer Bjork, “Predatory” open access: a longitudinal study of article volumes and market characteristics,” BMC Medicine (2015) 13:230

RESOURCESBeall’s list : https://scholarlyoa.com/publishers/DOAJ: https://doaj.org/ISSN International Centre: www.issn.orgNL M: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association:

http://oaspa.org/Principles of Transparency:

http://publicationethics.org/news/principles-transparency-and-best-practice-scholarly-publishing-revised-and-updated

ROAD: http://road.issn.orgThink Check Submit: http://thinkchecksubmit.org/