Issues in Scholarly Publishing

Mike Nason | Scholarly Communications and Publishing Librarian

"Scholarly Communications"

“Scholarly Communications” - is a mouthful of a phrase that essentially means “the process by which researchers share/publish the products of research”.

Scholarly Publishing

It is very likely that, within your discipline, the culture of publishing has changed since your advisor/dean started their career.

Disciplines vary greatly in their approaches to research and publishing.

•     monographs
  • long tail
•     journals
  • short tail
•     technical reports
•     working papers
•     conference proceedings
•     digital collections/projects
•     research data

Ch-ch-changes.

The changing landscape of publishing:

• the internet
  • digital publishing
  • widespread sharing

The changing landscape of publishing:

• publish or perish
  • pressure on researchers
• increasing specialization
  • more and more journals
• the "serials crisis"
  • rapidly increasing costs
• open access

A vague generalization of the

$Economics of Publishing

“Academic publishers reap huge profits as libraries go broke…

5 companies publish more than 50 per cent of research papers, study finds.”
(CBC News, 2015)

Open Access

Open Access

As a movement...

Warm Fuzzies

Open Access

As a realistic movement...

Warm Flawsies

Open Access

As a useful and appealing movement...

More Eyes On Your Research

Open Access

As a disruptor of publishing cultures.

• oa mandates
  • institutional/government
• oa journals
  • be not afraid
• repositories
  • institutional/disciplinary
• publishing models
  • green
  • gold
  • hybrid

and so...

The Tri-Agency OA policy and you.

#1

Grant recipients are required to ensure that any peer-reviewed journal publications arising from Agency-supported research are freely accessible within 12 months of publication.

#2

Grant recipients can publish in a journal that offers immediate open access or that offers open access on its website
within 12 months.

#3

Grant recipients can deposit their final, peer-reviewed manuscript into an institutional or disciplinary repository that will make the manuscript freely accessible within 12 months of publication.

#4

Find policies:

http://sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/

But, also...

That's a lot, huh?

Bad faith (or so-called “predatory”) publishers.

Bad-faith publishers often operate large websites full of open access journals with incredibly-vague-yet-weirdly-specific titles like “The International Journal of Studies”.

They make money via “author processing charges”, or APCs.

Some legitimate OA journals do this.
Legitimate paid journals also do this.

Major Publishers Benefit Similarly

“Predatory” is a little misleading ‘cause

To even call bad-faith publishers, “publishers,” is too flattering. Largely, the entire practice of “predatory publishing” is about taking advantage of researchers.

#1

Researchers are under tremendous professional pressure to publish (or perish).

#2

Researchers have a lot on their plate with increasing course loads, their own research, professional development, job precarity, and committee work.

#3

Many/some/enough researchers are not equipped with the technical literacy to determine when they are dealing with a scam.

#4

A lot of publishing culture is folk-wisdom within departments. Many programs fail to properly prepare early-career folks for the realities and processes of publishing.

You will get emails.

Dear Dr. [Grad Student],

Hope things are good at your end. I read the jots of your research paper and found your work astonishing and would like to invite you to as our reviewer to facilitate our academic relationship. You can apply as a reviewer at https://globaljournals.org/board/apply-for-reviewer/for-computer-science

Additionally, we would like to add you to our research community. This will help you to connect and collaborate with other researchers around the globe in the domain of your research. May I know your research interests and your work domain?

Kindly acknowledge what some primary researches focused in university on your research field? We would like to collaborate on upcoming conferences in your university with you.

Further, you may visit the link below for journal's specification document at [link] which includes all journal metrics. Thank you, and we await your favorable response at the earliest.

Regards,
With Warm Regards,
Dr. Alexander S. Walker
Astt. Editor
Global Journals Organisation

Dear Michael Nason,

As stated by the University of New Brunswick's electronic repository, you authored the work entitled "The ties that bind : the mutual identity crises of black and Jewish Americans in the late 1960s" in the framework of your postgraduate degree.

We are currently planning publications in this subject field, and we would be glad to know whether you would be interested in publishing the above mentioned work with us.

LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing is a member of an international publishing group, which has almost 10 years of experience in the publication of high-quality research works from well-known institutions across the globe. Besides producing printed scientific books, we also market them actively through more than 80,000 booksellers.

Kindly confirm your interest in receiving more detailed information in this respect.

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,
Sarah Lynch
Acquisition Editor

It's a bit of a Jungle out there.

~*deep breath*~

I promise that I am not trying to terrify you.

#1

Many publishers require you to sign over your copyright when you publish, making your research belong to them. This isn’t ideal. Push back.

https://sparcopen.org/

Your work is your work.

#2

There are a number of resources for determining where you might want to publish. Use them. Talk to colleagues. Scrutinize publishers.

https://thinkchecksubmit.org/

Think about where and how you want to share your research.

Scholarly Profiles & Academic Social Media

• academia.edu
  • facebook for academics
• researchgate
  • facebook for academics
• twitter
  • a pit of despair (or not)
• orcid.org
  • not-for-profit profile service with persistent IDs

If you are already publishing or in the process of being published, you should probably sign up with orcid.org.

This has been a lot. I am sorry.

mnason@unb.ca

I have your back!

Questions?