Voting with your feet: choosing which publishers deserve your time

Picture from above of black shoes and bottom of black pants standing on black asphalt, with two white arrows painted on the asphalt just above the feet, one arrow pointing diagonally up and the other pointing diagonally down
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Written by guest contributor Jessica Lange

Academic publishing relies on the voluntary participation of scholars to contribute as peer reviewers and editors. Editors typically look after reviewing initial submissions to a journal, finding peer reviewers, and reviewing the final submission for acceptance. Peer reviewers serve an equally important role, assessing a scholarly work for its validity, impact, and relevance to the field.  

Researchers choose to serve as editors and peer reviewers to contribute back to the scholarly community and advance research. This is also considered part of the “job” of an academic for the purposes of tenure and promotion. However, as precarious academic positions are on the rise, this underlying principle is being reconsidered. Even for academics with a full-time position, the squeeze of increasing administrative responsibilities alongside a heavier valuing of research in tenure and promotion, has led some to make strategic choices about where to devote their energies.  

Despite the importance of these roles to the scientific community, many people outside academia are surprised to learn that neither peer reviewers nor editors receive compensation for their work. Given that large, commercial publishers post hefty profit margins and may have questionable privacy practices, researchers are starting to wonder if these corporations should benefit from their voluntary labour and scholarly expertise.  

If the above applies to you, I’d recommend the KU Leuven framework based on the Fair Open Access Alliance. When evaluating a publication for editorial or peer review duties, ask if : 

“The supplier of the infrastructure for scholarly communication has a transparent ownership structure, and is not profit-driven and accountable to shareholders, but mission-driven and accountable to the academic community (e.g. an editorial board or scholarly society).” (Fair Open Access) 

This framework privileges “scholar-led” operations, those run and led by academics themselves, supported in many cases by universities, societies, libraries, or associations. For example, the McGill Library hosted journal Seismica, a free-to-authors and readers open access journal, launched in specific response to the for-profit nature of scientific publishing in their discipline.  

How can I assess a journal?  

Journals will typically post this kind of information in their “About” page. Review their website to see if they are published by a commercial publisher (e.g., Wiley, Elsevier etc.), a non-profit (e.g., Cambridge University Press, University of Toronto Press etc.), or independently supported by a university, library, or association. Does the journal provide a mission statement? What is the publisher’s mission and goals? If the journal charges article processing charges, are they transparent about the fees (if applicable)? 

What else would you add for consideration?  

Additional resources

Jessica Lange is the Scholarly Communications Librarian at McGill University. In this role, she provides services to the campus community in the areas of open access, publishing, author rights, and open educational resources (OERs). She also manages McGill’s open access repository eScholarship and its scholarly publishing program. Her research interests include scholarly publishing and open access.  

eBooks about stress, anxiety, and other health questions

As a follow-up to Francesca’s post about finding and evaluating health information, we wanted to provide you with reliable health and wellness books that are available electronically through McGill.

Typically you would find these types of books physically in our Wendy Patrick Health Information Collection. Since the Library buildings are closed, we have pulled together lists of health and wellness eBooks in our collection, as it can be difficult to find them in the catalogue.

We have highlighted a few books on stress, mindfulness, and anxiety on our Consumer Health Guide as we know it is a stressful and anxious time for most of us (You can also access them by clicking on each of the images above). We hope these books might provide tools to help you cope a little better.

You can find more titles on a variety of health and wellness topics on the following lists:

There is no formal way to search the lists, but you can use Control + F to search the titles for the topic you are interested in. You can also contact health sciences librarians Jill Boruff and Lucy Kiester, who would be happy to help with your health and wellness questions.

We hope you and your loved ones are safe and well during this unprecedented time.

New Health and Wellness books in the Schulich Library

We are receiving new and interesting books on health and wellness topics every day!

Here are a few examples (click on the image for more information):

   

               

The Wendy Patrick Health Information Collection is located on the main floor of the Schulich Library. We are displaying the new books as they arrive. Take a study break and visit the Schulich Library to browse the titles or visit this reading list to check out the full list of titles (and we’ll be adding more as the new books arrive!)

Staying healthy at the end of the term

Need some new techniques for relieving stress? Having trouble sleeping? Want to learn more about staying healthy during exams? The McGill Library has books that might help!

The Wendy Patrick Health Information Collection is located on the main floor of the Schulich Library. We currently have a small display of books on stress relief, mindfulness, and sleeping habits that might help you during this stressful end-of-term time. Take a study break and visit the Schulich Library to browse the titles or visit this reading list to check out the full list of titles.

Good luck with your exams and final papers!