The peer review process is central to science – but it can be easily manipulated. Improving it is vital to uphold research integrity.
Articles on Predatory journals
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Science rankings rely on papers in academic journals. Broadening the view to include many more open-access journals will upend the usual order – thanks to China’s vast number of publications.
In some cases, it can be difficult for academics to know which journals are not credible – but other times, people feel pressure to publish in these publications.
Whenever you hear about a new bit of science news, these suggestions will help you assess whether it’s more fact or fiction.
Universities that pay academics to publish their research should do so with caution.
All institutions that offer doctoral-level qualifications are about to undergo a national review in response to the concerns about quality.
In South Africa, open access publishing should be mandatory and publicly funded data generated by universities, should be freely available.
Politicians on the right surely wipe with their left hand; and vice versa?
The only place to find the Golden Age of Science is in the future, but we need some help in getting there.
If there’s a general sense that academic publication is about knowledge dissemination rather than meeting performance targets, academics and universities become less vulnerable to predatory journals.
Scientific truth is based on a body of research which has been tried and tested by many researchers over time. Peer review filters the good science from the bad.
Everything you need to know about predatory publishers.
A leading website that monitored predatory open access journals has closed. This will make it harder to keep tabs on this corrosive force within science.
There are many exciting new publishing opportunities opening up for academics who want to take their work beyond traditional spaces like journals.
African academics and universities have been caught in the predatory journal web. It’s time for the continent’s universities to start taking this threat to their integrity seriously.
To the mark the eighth annual Open Access Week, we asked our readers what they wanted to know about the initiative. Here are their questions with answers from our experts.
Top contributors
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Professor of Higher Education, Rhodes University, South Africa, Rhodes University
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Editor in Chief, Medical Journal of Australia, Queensland University of Technology
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Professor of Management, University of Johannesburg
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Visiting Fellow, Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, Australian National University
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Dean of Research, Humanities, Curtin University
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Lecturer in History of Medicine/Life Science, The University of Melbourne
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Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London
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Associate Professor in Education & Technology, University of KwaZulu-Natal
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Previous Vice President of the Academy of Science of South Africa and DSI-NRF SARChI chair in Fungal Genomics, Professor in Genetics, University of Pretoria, University of Pretoria
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Adjunct Professor Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology
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Associate Professor in Astronomy, Monash University
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Emeritus Professor of Medical Biochemistry, University of Cape Town
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Chair of ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Biotechnology, The University of Queensland
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Professor of Zoology and Senior Research Fellow, Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria
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Postdoctoral Fellow, Rhodes University