Presentation given at IFLA WLIC in Columbus, Ohio (2016)

1. 1
Questionable Practices in Scholarly Publishing:
the Stance of the ISSN Network
Gaëlle Béquet
Director
ISSN International Centre
IFLA – Session 114 – The Role of Stakeholders in the New Serials World - August 15th, 2016 – Columbus, Ohio

2. 2
The ISSN Network Today
IFLA – Session 114 – The Role of Stakeholders in the New Serials World - August 15th, 2016 – Columbus, Ohio

3. 3
The ISSN International Register
- 1,884,900 records describing serials and
continuing resources both print and digital
- 73,834 records added in 2015 (from 69,262
in 2005 and 66,171 in 2010)
- 177,601 digital serials with ISSN in 2015
- 22,610 records for digital serials in 2015
(from 6934 in 2005 and 11,429 in 2010)
IFLA – Session 114 – The Role of Stakeholders in the New Serials World - August 15th, 2016 – Columbus, Ohio

4. 4
Open Access: Our new Challenges (1)
2002: Budapest Declaration
2003: Bethesda Statement on Open Access
Publishing
2003: Berlin Declaration on Open Access to
Knowledge in the Sciences and
Humanities
IFLA – Session 114 – The Role of Stakeholders in the New Serials World - August 15th, 2016 – Columbus, Ohio

5. 5
Directory of Open Access Scholarly Resources
IFLA – Session 114 – The Role of Stakeholders in the New Serials World - August 15th, 2016 – Columbus, Ohio

6. 6
Key Figures about ROAD: Content
- 257 Academic repositories
- 145 Conference proceedings
- 14633 Journals
- 231 Monographic series
- 709 Scholarly blogs
IFLA – Session 114 – The Role of Stakeholders in the New Serials World - August 15th, 2016 – Columbus, Ohio

7. 7
Key Figures about ROAD: Usage
IFLA – Session 114 – The Role of Stakeholders in the New Serials World - August 15th, 2016 – Columbus, Ohio
User queries between May and December 2015

8. 8
Open Access: Our new Challenges (2)
What happened in 2012?
- Inception of ROAD and…
- Emergence of « predatory publishing "
What was the impact to the ISSN Network ?
IFLA – Session 114 – The Role of Stakeholders in the New Serials World - August 15th, 2016 – Columbus, Ohio

9. 9
Open Access: Our new Challenges (2)
The development of active predatory open access
journals from 2010 to 2014 (Shen, Björk, 2015)
IFLA – Session 114 – The Role of Stakeholders in the New Serials World - August 15th, 2016 – Columbus, Ohio

10. 10
Open Access: Our new Challenges (2)
The distribution of predatory OA publishers
(n = 656) by geographic regions (Shen, Björk,
2015)
IFLA – Session 114 – The Role of Stakeholders in the New Serials World - August 15th, 2016 – Columbus, Ohio

11. 11
The ISSN network and Questionable Publishers
ISSN stands for identification,
not for quality assessment.
How do ISSN National centres proceed
when faced with questionable practices?
IFLA – Session 114 – The Role of Stakeholders in the New Serials World - August 15th, 2016 – Columbus, Ohio

12. 12
Promoting Ethics in Open Access Publishing
The link between questionable practices in
publishing and the Open Access
movement is not that obvious…
Fraud in publishing is as old as the hills…
Education is key to improving publishing
practices and enlightening authors…
IFLA – Session 114 – The Role of Stakeholders in the New Serials World - August 15th, 2016 – Columbus, Ohio

13. 1313

14. 14
Think. Check. Submit.
Help researchers identify trusted journals
A simple checklist to assess credentials
Help ensure a body of quality scholarly literature
What?i

15. 15
More research is being published worldwide
New journals launched each week
Can be a challenge to find up-to-date guidance
Stories of malpractice
& deception on the rise
Why?i

16. 16
Journal has lower or no profile among peers
> Few or no citations
Paper not indexed or archived
> Difficult or impossible for peers to find
Poor publishing experience
> Work not adequately reviewed or edited
Damaged reputation
Implicationsi

17. 17
! Are you submitting to a trusted journal?
! Is it the best one for your work?

18. 18
 Do you or your colleagues know the journal?
 Can you easily identify and contact the publisher?
 Is the journal clear about the type of peer review it
uses?
 Are articles indexed in the services you use?
 Is it clear what fees will be charged?
 Do you recognize the editorial board?
 Is the publisher a member of a
recognized industry initiative?

19. 19
> Only if you can answer ‘yes’ to all or most
of these questions

20. 20
www.thinkchecksubmit.org
feedback@thinkchecksubmit.org
@TCS_Campaign
#thinkchecksubmit
Interested?i

21. 21
 ALPSP
 BioMed Central
 DOAJ
 INASP
 ISSN
 LIBER
 OASPA
 SPARC
 Springer Nature
 STM
 Ubiquity Press
 UKSG
Who?
Who?i

22. 22
• Visit: thinkchecksubmit.org, sign-up for
news
Researchers: use the list, tell us what you think
Librarians: add check list to faculty resources
All: submit your FAQs via #thinkchecksubmit
Publishers…
Get
involvedi

23. 23
Publishers:
– link to thinkchecksubmit.org from your website
– blog about the campaign
– include in your talks
– add to your workshops
– add to your eTOCs
Get
involvedi

24. 24
Thank you!
gaelle.bequet@issn.org
www.issn.org
road.issn.org
ISSNInternationalCentre
@ISSN_IC
IFLA – Session 114 – The Role of Stakeholders in the New Serials World - August 15th, 2016 – Columbus, Ohio