Throughout their history, scholarly journals have verified the reliability and quality of research, and the peer review process they use is an important building block of trust. In this blog post, Joanna Ball, Managing Director of the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and Cenyu Shen, Deputy Head of Editorial Quality,  reflect on the current threats to trust in scholarly journal publishing, and the implications for organizations like DOAJ that seek to uphold that trust.

En el ámbito de la comunicación científica, coexisten tres modelos de financiación de revistas de acceso abierto: APC (Article Process Charges), tasas de procesamiento por página, y el modelo Diamante. Recientes declaraciones, como el Manifiesto sobre la Ciencia como Bien Público Global y cambios en Latindex, abordan estos temas. En la reunión de SciELO en septiembre de 2023, se discutieron las “Contribuciones al Costeo de Publicaciones” (CCP). El equipo SciELO Chile analizó manualmente los cobros de revistas, cruzando datos con DOAJ y Latindex, y categorizó las instituciones editoras según Latindex.

CCC and Media Growth Strategies undertook a thorough examination of metadata management across the research lifecycle. This in-depth review builds on an existing body of work to assess and help market participants confront the challenges around low quality metadata and underutilization of persistent identifiers that disrupt various stages of the research lifecycle, including but not limited to the transition to Open Access (OA). CCC is sharing this analysis with the scholarly communications community to spark dialogue and drive action.

Look at the infographics in PDF.

Robert Harington, Chief Publishing Officer at the American Mathematical Society, discusses the value of preprints, emphasizing their role alongside traditional journals in academia. He explores the need for a balanced approach that includes both preprints and peer-reviewed journals, stressing that dismantling journals isn’t a solution to integrity issues. Harington advocates for improved peer review practices and changing how academic success is measured, suggesting funders support quality peer review. He also highlights the unique challenges in mathematics publishing and calls for a cultural shift to prioritize research integrity in career assessments.

Publishers play a crucial role in scholarly research by facilitating peer review, providing editorial support, and ensuring the availability of scientific publications. Publishing with reputable publishers enhances the visibility and impact of research. However, the rise of predatory publishers, which engage in questionable practices like poor peer review and aggressive acquisition, poses risks to scholars and institutions. These practices can harm reputations and the credibility of the scholarly record. This guide offers practical advice for avoiding predatory journals, written by open access specialists of a Dutch consortium of university libraries.

Download the guide in PDF format.

The recent nationwide audit of retracted research papers in China has shed light on significant challenges within the academic community. This audit, initiated by the Chinese Government, marks a crucial point in the pursuit of research integrity within China’s academic landscape. By actively initiating audits and supporting initiatives aimed at enhancing research integrity, government funding bodies send a clear message to researchers that accountability and transparency are paramount. Authors must recognize their responsibility not only to the academic community but also to those who fund their research endeavors.

Con la asistencia de autoridades académicas de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), el 11 de abril de 2024, se realizó la presentación virtual (vía Zoom y YouTube) del Descubridor de Artículos de Latindex. Este nuevo servicio, permite a los usuarios del Sistema descubrir y recuperar artículos académicos provenientes de revistas iberoamericanas que por su apego a criterios de calidad editorial, han pasado a formar parte del Catálogo Latindex 2.0.

On 11 April 2024, the new Article Discovery Service of Latindex was launched with the support of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). The online event was transmitted via Zoom and YouTube to a community of potential users interested in discovering new sets of academic information.  Through the discovery service, users will be able to search among half a million articles harvested to date. These articles come from a set of scientific journals (Catálogo 2.0) covering all disciplines of knowledge and published in the 21 Ibero-American countries that are part of the network, plus the Ibero-Americanist journals published in North America, Asia, and Europe.

Both organisations agreed to work together in 2021 in a variety of ways, but primarily to encourage the dissemination and use of scholarly research using online technologies, regional and international networks, partners and communities, helping to build local institutional capacity and sustainability around the world. The new agreement, signed in early March 2024, will slightly shift focus to build upon existing collaborations, particularly around metadata. One of the primary sections of the MOU is enhancing support for the least-resourced journals.

This study provides a deeper understanding of the issues around practices and costs of scholarly publications, offers an analysis of the situation, and proposes advice for policy actions. The report documents the pervasive lack of information on contracts and deals with publishers and recommends specific actions, mostly required on the side of the member states, institutions and libraries to enhance transparency regarding the costs of publishing. These include, among others, publishing the contracts and working on making available structured information about them.

Some journals capitalise on researchers’ and clinicians’ need for publications by luring them in with flattering emails, only to subject them to poor editing practices and threatening invoices. Instead of relying on (white) lists of journals, Dominic Mitchell / DOAJ recommends researchers learn what to look for when submitting a paper. Precisely, Think. Check. Submit is an initiative set up by several international scholarly publishing associations to make researchers more aware of what to look for when submitting to a journal.