“Predatory” Publishing: Addressing Bias and Avoiding Pitfalls

Oct. 20, 2020 from noon – 1:00pm PST

Find slides, recording, transcript here

#oaweek2020 @UCSDScholComm

An open access virtual workshop for instructors given by Librarians from University of California at San Diego (UC San Diego, Temple University, the University of California at Irvine, and the University of California at San Francisco.

“Mind the Gap,” CC BY (2.0) Elliott Brown from Birmingham, United Kingdom

“Predatory” publishing, especially in the health sciences, is an ongoing concern and it is essential for researchers to be able to recognize deceptive publishing practices. It is important, though, not to oversimplify what constitutes predatory practices. While using tools like “blocked” or “approved” lists helps researchers avoid predatory publishers, these lists can reinforce power dynamics that exclude marginalized, non-western viewpoints. Come to this session to learn how to balance publishing in high quality open access journals while staying aware of the biases in scholarly publishing. This event is geared towards researchers but is open to all.

Learning Objectives:

Following this session, participants will be able to:

1. Identify the characteristics of deceptive publishing practices in order to avoid their tactics.

2. Understand the inherent and hidden biases in the publication industry in order to challenge their own assumptions.

3. Differentiate the limitations of simplistic lists of deceptive journals and publishers.

4. Assess publishing venues using reliable criteria and resources while avoiding bias.

Related UC San Diego Library research guides:

Resources for choosing and evaluating journal publishing venues : Includes the library’s evaluation tool for making values-based decisions without bias..

Resources for evaluating book publishing venues

Related research and information:

Harrison W. Inefuku. “Globalization, Open Access, and the democratization of knowledge.” Educause Review (July 2016). [open access]

Harrison W. Inefuku and Charlotte Roh. “Agents of diversity and social justice: Librarians and scholarly communication.” In Open Access and the Future of Scholarly Communication: Policy and Infrastructure, edited by Kevin L. Smith and Katherine A. Dickson. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016). [open access]

Critical Race & Ethnic Studies 101 (Alamri): Privilege & Bias in Scholarly Publishing – a UC Merced Library course guide.

The Knowledge G.A.P. research and publications

Session recordings from the OA Scholarly Publishing 2020 Conference: Open Access in a time of Global Challenge

Scholarly Communication Institute 2019 projects and teams

[We’ll post slides and recordings in November 2020.]