FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY
October 25 – 31, 2021 is International Open Access Week. Open Access (OA) is a publishing model promoting free and unrestricted access to various types of scholarly works.
Faculty members often ask FAU librarian liaisons to assist with determining whether or not an Open Access (OA) publisher is predatory or deceptive. They usually receive an e-mail from an OA publisher that promises rapid acceptance and peer review of their manuscript and for fees ranging from $50 to over $1,000 once it is accepted. Although these solicitations may be appealing, especially to scholars who need to publish their work, some may be from deceptive* or predatory publishers.
Deceptive Publishers Defined
The OA publishing model intends to make scholarly and scientific publications freely available. Readers do not need a subscription or go through a paywall to read what may be important for their work; instead, an author pays the fees to publish. Deceptive publishers misuse the OA model because their main intent is publishing for profit rather than communicating and preserving scholarly works.
An additional problem with deceptive publishers is they use ethically compromised publishing practices that can negatively impact a scholarly body of knowledge. The peer-review process may not be reliable and could result in inaccurate or faulty information being distributed and reused. These publishers may also falsify or exaggerate their bibliometrics, professional affiliation, or editorial boards to entice scholars to submit their work. In response, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) released a 2017 statement where they cautioned researchers about submitting their NIH-sponsored research articles to potentially deceptive publishers.
Deceptive Publishers Webinar
Scholars have become increasingly skeptical of OA publishers because of deceptive ones. To help debunk these perceptions and to help determine deceptive publishers, the FAU Libraries will be hosting a webinar, Deceptive Publishers: What They Are & How to Evaluate Them for Open Access Week 2021. This 50-minute session will be held on Wednesday, October 27, 2021 from 12:00 to 12:50 PM. Register at https://fau-edu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_qSEGcb1rRaWDv0x5ETxbnA. All graduate students, staff, faculty, and undergraduate students interested in publishing are invited to attend.
*Deceptive publishers is the largely accepted term since scholarly publishing experts believe it accurately describes their attributes.
More Information:
- Deceptive or Predatory Publishers (Research Guide): https://libguides.fau.edu/scs-predatory-publishers
- A Focus on Faculty: Deceptive or Predatory Publishers (FAU Libraries News & Announcements): https://library.fau.edu/external-relations/focus-faculty-deceptive-or-predatory-publishers
