„Publish or Perish“ has been the mantra in academia for some time, along with the urge to publish Open Access. Academic careers increasingly depend on the list of publications. Without publications in international peer-reviewed journals it is increasingly difficult to start a successful university career. As a result, academic publishing has become a profitable business. More and more so-called ‘predatory publishers’ aggressively promote their journals among potential authors. These journals often charge high publication fees and offer misleading promises of speedy publication. But unlike legitimate publishers, predatory publishers do not provide the necessary services to ensure the quality of the research being published. They often have little or no editorial oversight and do not employ a thorough peer-review process. They also frequently use fake editorial boards and reviewer names to create the illusion of legitimacy. As a result, the research published in these journals often lacks credibility and can have a negative impact on the academic reputation of the authors. Therefore, to combat predatory publishing, it is essential to raise awareness of the issue and develop strategies to prevent it.
In his talk Dr. Leonhard Suchenwirth from the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) presented some examples and insights into the phenomenon of predatory journals and how to best avoid them. He outlined some of the characteristics of predatory journals and their practices, which are mainly geared towards making profit from mass publications without any consideration to quality. In general, predatory journals are not listed in any reputable academic catalogues, however they often try to fake or imitate impact factors and other quality criteria of reputable journals in order to attract authors. Sometimes it can be hard to distinguish lower quality journals from fraudulent journals. Thus Dr. Suchenwirth introduced a ‘sliding scale’ which can help to identify risks for authors.
Following the presentation, the participating scholars asked several questions, for instance on reliable databases, the relevance of impact factors, reviewing practices of high-quality journals or the quality of particular journals. Another question was about possible legal means to combat predatory publishing. After the talk participants met in breakout rooms for an informal chat.
Dr. Leonhard Suchenwirth is a subject librarian at the Library of TU Wien. He holds a diploma in Geography from University of Vienna and a PhD from Technische Universität Berlin. Previously he worked as a GIS Specialist for GIZ, UNODC and others.
47 people from 24 countries joined the event for present and former scholarship holders.