Is This a Quality Journal to Publish in? How can you Tell? March 21, 2016 NC Serials Conference Beth Bernhardt

Predatory Open Access Publishing “is an exploitative open access publishing business model that involves charging publication fees to authors without providing the editorial and publishing services associated with legitimate journals” “Newer scholars from developing countries are said to be especially at risk of becoming the victim of these practices.”

Predatory Journals Challenges Promoting Open Access Misperceptions among faculty

Faculty Questions Typical faculty question “I got an inviting me to publish in Open Access journal. Is this a reputable quality OA journal in my field?”

DOAJ Directory of Open Access Journals –OA journals in a discipline –Criteria for listing OA journal in their directory DOAJ –

DOAJ requirements Access – Full text must be available for free without delay Link goes to the homepage Open Access statement must be clearly marked Must have an ISSN Site must have clear navigation Up-to-date editorial information Review process clearly stated Guidelines for publishing clearly stated Article charges must be clearly stated

COPE Committee on Publication Ethics –Member organization for OA publishers and also other publishers –Members should: Follow the Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers Have their editors follow the COPE Code of Conduct for Journal Editors

OASPA Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association OA publishers association Code of conduct criteria must be met

Beall’s List Potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open- access publishers Complied by Jeffery Bealle at Auraria Library, University of Colorado Denver

Beall’s List Publishers/ journals on the list are worthy of additional investigation, but best to make your own judgements

Negative Indicators Journal web site is difficult to locate or identify Publisher “About” information is absent on the journal’s web site Publisher direct marketing (i.e. spamming) or other advertising is obtrusive Instructions to authors information is not available Information on peer review and copyright is absent or unclear on the journal web site Journal scope statement is absent or extremely vague Repeat lead authors in same issue

Positive Indicators Scope of the journal is well-defined and clearly stated Journal’s primary audience is researchers/practitioners Editor, editorial board are recognized experts in the field Journal is affiliated with or sponsored by an established scholarly society or academic institution Article are within the scope of the journal and meet the standards of the discipline Any fees or charges for publishing in the journal are easily found on the site and clearly explained Journal clearly indicates rights for use and re-use of content at article level Journal has an ISSN

UNC Greensboro Experience

Places to check DOAJ - OASPA – COPE – Beall’s List UNCG Libguide -