Jackie Marchington, Director of Global Operations at Caudex, talks through a common-sense approach to assessing the credibility of an academic journal prior to submission of a paper for peer review.

Recorded 14 June 2017 at a MedComms Networking event in Oxford. Produced by NetworkPharma.tv

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ABSTRACT:

The term ‘predatory’ open access (OA) journals was coined by US academic librarian Jeffrey Beall, who published a now discontinued blacklist of possible or probably predatory OA journals and publishers. The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a membership organization listing OA journals that meet certain technical criteria, and which may be considered a whitelist for checking out new, unfamiliar OA journals. However, with neither backlists nor whitelists being totally infallible, initiatives such as “ThinkCheckSubmit” can help.

Caudex presents a case study of a journal with enough of the classic signs of a “questionable” journal present – very rapid turnover times: review within one week, and publication as early as 24 hours after acceptance; a comparatively (but not suspiciously) low article processing charge (APC) and a very simple submission process – to warrant a closer look. The case study walks you through the investigative steps taken, and ties back to the “ThinkCheckSubmit” checklist.

The moral of the story: if a journal looks too good to be true, then it probably is. However, agencies should conduct their own thorough checks to enable them to make their own recommendations about unfamiliar journals.

Written by Penny Gray, Freelance Medical Writer

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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/event_140617.html

Jackie’s presentation (PDF format) is at http://medcommsnetworking.com/presentations/marchington_140617_02.pdf

Jackie’s Linkedin page is at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackiemarchington/

More about Caudex can be found at http://www.caudex.com

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]