Predatory journals: defined, at last!

It’s official! After 12 hours of discussion, 18 questions and 3 rounds, leading scholars and publishers from ten countries have agreed a definition of predatory publishing. Here it goes:

  “Predatory journals and publishers are entities that prioritize self-interest at the expense of scholarship and are characterized by false or misleading information, deviation from best editorial and publication practices, a lack of transparency, and/or the use of aggressive and indiscriminate solicitation practices.” (Grudniewicz et al., 2019)

Are you publishing in a “predatory journal”?!

Reference:

Grudniewicz, A., Moher, D., Cobey, K. D., Bryson, G. L., Cukier, S., Allen, K., … Lalu, M. M. (2019). Predatory journals: No definition, no defence. Nature, 576(7786), 210–212. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03759-y

How to get published in an academic journal: top tips from editors

Journal editors share their advice on how to structure a paper, write a cover letter – and deal with awkward feedback from reviewers.

Read the full article on the Guardian site at http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jan/03/how-to-get-published-in-an-academic-journal-top-tips-from-editors

Publication Ethics: where do we stand?!

Ever thought of ‘ethics’ in publishing?!

Have you come across or been a part of the scenario where a junior researcher does much of the work, but is deprived of getting his name included in a publication?! Or, a research supervisor or department head insisting that his/her name be included in a publication without contributing anything to it?!

Yes! many of us do encounter such situations.  What is Publication Ethics? Do we have it or lack it? What constitutes authorship?

The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) brings forth a discussion document on What constitutes authorship?

Get it at http://publicationethics.org/files/Authorship_DiscussionDocument.pdf

Public Library of Science (PLoS)

“The Public Library of Science (PLoS) is a nonprofit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world’s scientific and medical literature a public resource.” PLoS is indeed committed to its mission and goals. Everything available on PLoS is free for access, use, copy and download. The hottest section of PLoS is the PLoS Journals Section. As PLoS is an advocate and follower of the principles of Open Access, all literature published in PLoS is open (free). As of now, PLoS has the following journals ready for access: PLoS Biology, PLoS Medicine, PLoS Computational Biology, PLoS Genetics, PLoS Pathogens, PLoS Clinical Trials, PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. All this, free and open. PLoS, for sure, is a treasure trove of scientific and medical literature of the world. PLoS also has a platform for publishing scientifc and medical information known as PLoS ONE

Log on the PLoS at http://www.plos.org/index.php

Directory of Open Access Journals

“Welcome to the Directory of Open Access Journals”, says DOAJ. DOAJ is a one-stop shop for all open access journals. Open Access Journals are freely accessible journals over the Web. As of today, about 2036 journals are listed in DOAJ, of which about 507 are searchable at the article level. About 83,264 articles are included in the Directory. The Journals can be searched on title or can be browsed by subject.

DOAJ is really a gift to information professionals. Visit DOAJ at http://www.doaj.org