In August 2014, the International Academy of Nursing Editors (INANE) met in Portland, Maine, for its annual meeting. It was during these sessions that the Academy and its keynote speakers at the meeting addressed the rising concern surrounding predatory publishing.
As background, it is crucial to initially acknowledge that Open Access publishing has likely opened the door to the now frequently seen practices of predatory publishing. As many of you may already know, highly respected and rigorous journals are now using Open Access options in addition to more traditional publication processes. Many authors who opt for Open Access, as with The Journal of Perinatal & Neonatal Nursing (JPNN), must pay a fee for Open Access but must still comply with the rigorous, high-quality peer review process. Some national funding organizations, such as the National Institutes of Health, and other federal agencies require Open Access. JPNN offers both Open Access and traditional access-but both must submit to the peer review standards established by JPNN. Many journals are completely Open Access and reflect high-performance journals, those with rigorous review and quality practice standards.
However, the Open Access process has allowed some publishing predators to step in with substandard practices, high fees, and often minimal or no peer review system or one that is highly invisible. Many of these manuscripts cannot be found because these journals are not indexed and have no reputable publishers and publishing standards, with the result that manuscripts are somewhere in limbo on the Internet. These journals promise authors to publish in an Open Access manor for large fees, with no quality review or standards for the manuscript. We have all received e-mails asking us to join as author or board member of a new Open Access journal where the title sounds authentic and academic, often similar to other well-known journals but with no backing from a reputable publishing company.
Quick review and automatic acceptance are virtually the standard for these predatory Open Access journals. Novice authors can be caught up in a journal name that sounds valid with the promise of quick review and publication, but after that much remains unknown and unobtainable online.
WHAT SOURCES ARE AVAILABLE
INANE has formed a Predatory Publishing Practices Collaborative comprised of editors from various reputable nursing journals to provide educational guidance and standards around this topic. This information can be obtained at http://nursingeditors.com. Thorne1 and the Predatory Publishing Practices Collaborative have developed an overview document that is available at Nurse Author & Editor, titled "Predatory Publishing: What Editors Need to Know." Information on this is also available at the INANE Web site. In addition, we encourage all authors to review Beall's2 list of predatory publishers at Scholarly Open Access (http://scholarlyoa.com). For all perinatal and neonatal nurses involved with JPNN, note that JPNN has been in existence for almost 30 years as a specialty journal published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. We will celebrate our 30th anniversary starting this fall. We are a journal documented in the Directory of Nursing Journals on the INANE Web site. We are a respected specialty journal for perinatal and neonatal nurses with a rigorous peer review system and an outstanding specialty editorial board.
We are indexed by MEDLINE and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), by mailto:Journals@Ovid, and other notable databases. JPNN has an impact factor (1.014) as noted by the Journal Citation Reports, the recognized authority for evaluating journals. These are key factors to look for when reviewing respected journals in which to publish. Our Web site, http://www.JpnnJournal.com, lists our complete editorial board and peer review process with publication deadlines and content.
We encourage you to get to know your journals. Do not share your name with or submit to any predatory journals. Help other authors as well. Do not let the Open Access process in publishing take another wrong turn at your expense. Strive to keep both the integrity and quality in publishing. JPNN aims to do both.
-Diane Angelini, EdD, CNM, NEA-BC, FACNM, FAAN
Perinatal Editor
Susan Bakewell-Sachs, PhD, RN, PNP-BC, FAAN
Neonatal Editor
References