New journal titles continue to appear on the scholarly publishing landscape on a regular basis, and more and more of them are choosing to follow an open access (OA) publishing model. What distinguishes these OA journals is that, unlike “traditional” journals that follow a model where the author transfers their copyrights to the publisher but does not pay a publication fee, OA journals generally charge Article Processing Charges (APCs) and allow the authors to retain their copyrights to the published work.
One of the unintended negative consequences of the “author-pays” OA model has been the introduction of “predatory” publishers into this landscape. Predatory publishers mislead authors into thinking that their journal provides a rigorous peer review and high-quality scholarly publication process, when in fact, the operation is really just a scam to collect author article processing charges that provides little in return in terms of legitimate peer-reviewed journal article publishing author services. Bottom line for authors – there is no benefit or reward to be had by the author for publishing their research in a publication that is not reputable – only negative consequences (i.e., a waste of their valuable scholarly efforts).
It basically comes down to a consumer protection issue, with the Federal Trade Commission even going after some of the biggest offenders and winning a $50 million court judgment in 2019. Beyond getting individually scammed, there are broader societal implications of contributing to this “publication-pollution” – in the words of NYC Ethicist, Arthur Caplan – as he described in his 2015 article where he discusses why it is so important for the sake of trust in research that everyone do their part to mitigate the threat of predatory publishing.
What can MSK authors do to verify that a journal is reputable?
The MSK Library’s “Support for Authors” LibGuide includes a variety of both subscription and free resources that can be used to investigate the legitimacy of a journal. The “Evaluating Journal Quality” MSK Library class provides training and live demonstrations of many of these resources that can help authors determine if a potential journal publisher is trustworthy.
Authors can also look for guidance using a resource called Think. Check. Submit, a tool even endorsed by the NIH (see NOT-OD-18-011: Statement on Article Publication Resulting from NIH Funded Research).
From their website: About | Think. Check. Submit. (thinkchecksubmit.org)
Think. Check. Submit. helps researchers identify trusted journals and publishers for their research. Through a range of tools and practical resources, this international, cross-sector initiative aims to educate researchers, promote integrity, and build trust in credible research and publications.
Questions? Ask Us at the MSK Library.
