Jan Seal-Roberts, Publishing Director at Adis, talks about the rapid growth of predatory publishers and the dangers they pose for the science, technology and medicine (STM) publishing community.

Recorded 2 November 2016 at a MedComms Networking event in Oxford. Produced by NetworkPharma.tv

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

ABSTRACT:

The growth in recent years of the author-pays, ‘gold’ model of open access publishing has been accompanied by a sinister parallel rise in predatory publishers, who unprofessionally exploit the model for profit at the expense of authors, researchers and scholarly publishing. Predatory publishers can appear impressive, with US business addresses, familiar sounding journals and authentic looking websites. Close inspection will usually reveal signs of a lack of professionalism, such as poor English language use, Gmail contact addresses, false claims regarding PubMed indexing or journal impact factors, and a lack of transparency. Publishing costs and timelines are often implausibly cheap or fast, and they generally have a very low article acceptance threshold.

Predatory publishers dupe unsuspecting authors into thinking they are submitting to a genuine journal. Some will pocket the article processing charges (APCs) and run, others will publish, but levy hidden, unexpected costs. Reviewers can find their carefully reviewed and rejected articles accepted; opinion leaders find their names included on the publishers’ editorial boards without permission. Researchers’ reputations may be significantly damaged.

Most major publishers are doing their best to combat these unscrupulous companies on a case-by case basis, and educate others about the risks and practices of predatory publishers. Jeffrey Beall, academic librarian at the University of Colorado, Denver, has done a huge amount to raise the profile of this issue in recent years, publishing lists of questionable publishers, journals, and misleading metrics. Nevertheless, predatory publishers are getting harder to spot – we need to be alert to their presence and associated risks.

Written by Penny Gray, Freelance Medical Writer

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

We are building a library of free webcasts, like this one, for the global MedComms Community and others at http://www.networkpharma.tv and we’d welcome your suggestions for new topics and speakers.

Full details of this MedComms Networking event are at http://medcommsnetworking.com/event80.html

Jan’s presentation (PDF format) is at http://medcommsnetworking.com/presentations/roberts_021116.pdf

Jan’s Linkedin page is at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jan-seal-roberts-20658914/

More about Adis can be found at http://www.springer.com/adis

Filming and technical direction by Mario Crispino, Freelance Cameraman & Editor

[For the avoidance of doubt: this video is intended to be freely accessible to all. Please feel free to share and use however you like. Cheers, Peter Llewellyn, Director NetworkPharma Ltd and Founder of the MedComms Networking Community activity at http://www.medcommsnetworking.com]