Learning objectives

• Be aware of the controversies about open access publishers
• Be able to spot signs of a predatory editor
• Use a tool to assess the quality of a journal

Description

When they are about to publish their first paper, PhD Students often have hard time to decide which journals they could submit their manuscript to, because they know that journals reputation may change a lot over time. The question of predatory open access publishers is not a binary question, predatory or not. No black or white list is likely to definitely answer the question : where should I publish in order to avoid bad actors in the publication field? After having described the different points of view on predatory open access publishing, students will use Compass to Publish, a tool designed by the University of Liège to help them evaluate the seriousness of a journal

• first hour : history of the concept, brainstorming : Which signs of predatory practices students should be aware of.
• second hour : evaluation of some open access journals with the tool “Compass to publish”