Can I Trust this Publisher? Is this Journal Reputable?

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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.

Three Questions: Tiffany Chan, Special Project Librarian

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Tiffany posing in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Tiffany visiting the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

For our next Three Questions interview, we spoke with Tiffany Chan, Special Project Librarian.

What areas can you help MSK users with?

Hi! I work with the team that identifies MSK authors’ published works and links them to Synapse, our online database of MSK authors and their publications. Synapse is unique to our organization and it allows MSK staff to effortlessly find their published works via their profiles to use for networking, CV development, and more! I can answer your questions about how to enhance your profile and our overall process from beginning to end.

What projects have you been working on recently?

We receive many publications each month by MSK authors. I index these works in our database by reviewing each one and making sure all the identifiers and other bibliographic data match up with what is on the original PDF, PubMed record, publisher website etc. I then ensure the publication is associated with the correct MSK author’s profile or create a new one if it is their first time publishing while at MSK. This ongoing project is an important step in our process that ensures your work is discoverable by others.

If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?

There are many places I want to explore, but my heart tells me to go back to my roots. My family’s ancestral home in China was occupied for countless generations by hardworking farmers and very capable women. This home is now unoccupied, but still holds on to its former beauty. My hope is to see it soon before time and nature reclaim it.

New Screening Tool to Detect Pancreatic Cancer Early

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Cancer Research UK, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Pancreatic cancer, while rare, is one of the most lethal cancers because the symptoms usually appear at a late stage, and the pancreas’ location makes it challenging to feel any tumors during routine exams.

In a promising pilot study, a new screening tool was able to identify more than 95% of stage I pancreatic cancers from blood samples.The researchers created the new tool based on the knowledge that tumors release small extracellular vesicles containing tumor proteins into the blood. 

The tool can predict the probability of being malignant by using the results from blood samples in conjunction with artificial intelligence. Predicting malignancy at an early stage lays the foundation for more effective cancer treatment. The study is published in Nature Communications Medicine.