Transcript Predatory publications - Hawler Medical University

Predatory Publications
‫بالوکەری ڕاوچی‬
‫الناشر الصیاد‬
Saleem Saaed Qader
MBChB, MD, MSc, MPH, PhD, SBGS
Consultant General Surgeon, Lecturer
General Director, Medical Research Centre, Hawler Medical University
Department of Surgery, Rizgary Teaching Hospital
Department of Surgery, Medical College, Hawler Medical University
TMC
Oct 2014
 In nature one species of animal feeds on another, which
in turn feeds on other things
 The first species is called the predator and the second is
called the prey
 The predator can destroy all the prey
 What actually happens in nature is that a cycle develops
where at some time the prey may be abundant and the
predators fewness
Sharks appear to be a major threat to fish
‫ڕاوچی و نێچیر‬
Publication
Visibility and
Communication
Why do we publish?
Tradition?
Religious
Disciplinary requirements?
Critical dialogues?
University requirements?
Love of writing?
Factors to be considered for publication:
 Impact factors
 International reach
Indexed? Where?
 Openly accessible?
 Readership numbers
 Subject appropriateness
Types of publishing
Range of publishing options:
Conference proceedings
Media articles
Book reviews
Journal articles
Book chapters
Books
Reports
Policy papers ... etc
Sole authored and co-authored
What matters in the university today?
Securing employment:
Teaching and research the norm for academics
 Institutional reputation ... Nationally/Internationally
 Personal reputation ... Nationally/Internationally
 Funding ??? (not in our system)
 Ranking of journals/assessments of research
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Distribution Models for Published Research
1. Subscription (business) model (traditional)
 Free to authors, but journals are only available through a
subscription (personal or library)
 Can be print, online, or both )now mostly online)
 Online journals are now licensed instead of sold
 Libraries often license many journals at once as part of a
package from the publisher, called “Big Deals”
 Some subscriptions can be very expensive
2. Open access models (New)
 Gratis (Free to Read)
 Libre (Free to Build upon)
A. Gold (author-pays model)
Author charged upon acceptance of a manuscript
The fee is called the “article processing charge” or APC
Advantage: free distribution of research
Disadvantage: Authors must pay, and predatory publishers
poisoning the model
B. Green (Self-archiving model)
C. Platinum (No author fees, the costs are covered by the
benevolence of others, e.g. through volunteer work,
donations, subsidies, grants, etc.)
Open access models
 Free to read, reuse, revise, remix, redistribute,
download, copy and print articles and other material
 Easy to discover/harvest by both humans &
computers
 Content automatically harvested by aggregators
 Data and narrative integrated to the widest extent
possible
 Community peer-review and rapid publication
 Easy and efficient communication with authors
and reviewers
Proxy indicators (Open Access)
Quality and Transparency of the editorial process
 The journal must have an editor/editorial board
 All editorial members must be easily identified
 Specification of the review process
Editorial review, Peer review, Blind peer review,
Double blind peer review
 Statements about aims & scope clearly visible
 Instructions to authors shall be available and
easily located
 Screening for plagiarism?
 Time from submission to publication

Transparency
More ...
Openness
 CC
(Creative Commons copyright)
licenses– if Yes, which?
 Reader rights
NO Mask
 Reuse rights
 Copyrights
 Author posting rights
A pool of content that can be copied, distributed, edited,
remixed, and built upon, all within the boundaries of
copyright law
Comparisons between print publishing and open
access (electronic publishing
Print
Electronic
Traditional venue
Normally attached to University
presses or commercial publishers
(profit motive)
Wide range of options and
qualities
Some require payment
Time frame from submission to
publication can be long
Depending on journal, authors
may only have one or two
opportunities to check or amend
their articles before publication
Growing phenomenon
Running, lower costs
Two types:
1. traditional journals moving to
digital repositories, retaining look
and feel of print
2. electronic journals born digital,
some experimenting with format
and mode of peer review
Attached to University presses or
commercial publishers, (not always)
Time frame in theory quicker
Authors may have more
opportunities for amendments, both
before publication and after
How an electronic journal works
 Software controls process
 Authors submit on line
 Peer review process tracked
 Editing and galleying process tracked
 Authors/editors/reviewers can check progress
 Communication is standardised
Some basic editorial tips for meeting journal
requirements
Select the right journal
Read the journal and get a sense of its contents
If new to publishing sound out the main editor
Follow the journal guidelines for authors!
Understand referencing systems
Proof and spell check
Don’t rush to publish
Seek advice from people in your field
Founded 2003 at Lund University with 300 journals
 Initially funded by minor project grants from
SPARC (The Scholarly Publishing and Academic
Resources Coalition) and Open Society Institute
 Additional grants from: SPARC Europe, INASP and
OpenAccess.se
Membership/Sponsor funding model introduced
2006
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Constant growth during the years
End of 2012: +8.000 journals
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www.is4oa.org
Founded by
Caroline Sutton,
Alma Swan &
Lars Bjørnshauge
BEWARE!!!
Predatory Journals
Associate Professor Jeffrey Beall, Uni Colorado:
Schlarly Open Access website:
http://scholarlyoa.com/
Angelika H.
Hofmann
Jeffrey Beall
Predatory Publishers – scholarlyoa.com
Predatory publishers
 Use deceptive practices to publish articles
 Make money, solicit papers via spam, not
reputable
 Publish everything; no peer-review, charge you to
publish
 Don’t do it! (It won’t count)
 Consult your faculty advisor before publishing
 Operating in someone’s apt, use gmail accounts,
no authentication of people’s credentials, put
professors on editorial boards without permission,
claim false impact factors
Beall’s list - - http://scholarlyoa.com/
Problems outlined among the predatory
journals
Articles published without complete author
approval
 Articles published before payment terms were
either understood or completed
 Articles published with payment terms incomplete
but then negotiated, forcing authors into an
uncomfortable position
 An editorial process that created more problems
than it solved, with errors introduced during proofreading
 Papers published without peer-review
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Tactics of predatory publishers
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Notifying authors about article fees after the article is
accepted or published
Aggressively campaigning for academics to submit articles
or serve on editorial boards
Listing academics as members of the editorial board
without their permission
Not allowing academics to resign from an editorial board
Appointing fake board members
Mimicking the name/ style of a reputable journal publisher
Publish plagiarized articles or chapters
Predatory publishers
 Exploit the gold open-access model
 Have a conflict of interest
 Use deceit to increase their business
 Author-centric rather than reader centric
 Not transparent in their operations
 Do not follow scholarly publishing standards
How Predatory Publishers Operate
 Spam
 Launch with many journals at once
 Use journals titles very close to existing titles
 Their journals have broad scopes
 Hide or misrepresent their true locations
 Poor or no peer review
 Don’t check for plagiarism
 Some also offer predatory conferences
Why Predatory Publishers are a Problem
They claim to be prestigious publishers when they
are not
They claim their journals have impact factors
when they do not
They publish junk science
They don’t use digital preservation services
(backups)
The gold open-access model doesn’t work well in
arts and humanities
They may increase the amount of research
misconduct
List of questionable publishers
http://scholarlyoa.com
Important sites (to make yourself visible):
 ORCID: distinguishes you from every other
researcher
http://orcid.org/
 http://scholar.google.com/
 Researcher ID
http://www.researcherid.com
In order to publish your article:
http://www.elsevier.com/journals/title/a
JANE: Journal, Author, Name estimator
http://www.biosemantics.org/jane/
It is your decision!!!