ALLEA Addresses Dangerous and Exploitative Predatory Publishing Practices during International Open Access Week
Over the past two decades, open access publishing has rapidly grown into a global industry, making scholarly publications readily available to researchers, policymakers, and the general public. While this has generally been seen as a positive development, the predominant “Gold” open access route has also given rise to unforeseen challenges.
On the occasion of International Open Access Week 2023, ALLEA is contributing to the discourse around “Community over Commercialization” through the publication of a statement issued by the Permanent Working Group on Science and Ethics, with Professor László Fésüs (Hungarian Academy of Sciences) as principal author, ‘Curbing Predatory Practices in Open Access Publishing‘.
The statement is both a set of guidelines and an appeal to the broader research community to collectively identify and disempower so-called “predatory” journals with subpar editorial and publication standards. The proliferation of such outlets comes with increasingly sophisticated exploitative practices, impacting researchers, eroding research integrity, and wasting financial and human resources. Indeed, the 2023 revised edition of the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity explicitly states that supporting or using journals, publishers, events, or services that undermine research quality is a violation of research integrity norms and is considered misconduct.
“Upholding the integrity and quality of scholarly work is a fundamental pillar of ALLEA’s mission, and as such, our Member Academies play a crucial role in promoting publishing outlets with appropriate editorial and publication standards recognised by the broader research community. We are committed to ensuring that the best interests of the academic community and the public remain at the forefront of open access initiatives.”
— ALLEA President Antonio Loprieno
