NISO Virtual Conference, From Submission to Publication: Creating and Conveying Quality

Description

One on-going concern in scholarly communication has to do with publication time lags and ultimately, any delays to research dissemination. How can publishing systems more efficiently support peer-review? How rapidly can a manuscript move from completed draft to the status of preprint to a final version of record? Certainly in recent years, there have been calls for more efficient and more transparent manuscript transfer and exchange. However, ensuring quality of publication has always entailed a certain degree of lag as materials moved through the editorial and production process. This event will examine some of the nuances of the process as well as emerging possibilities for improvement.



A natural follow-up question then would be how best to guard against predatory publishers – those who would seduce researchers into submitting good work to questionable periodicals. No author wants to pay hefty feeds for publication lacking the checks of peer review or editorial oversight. Are whitelists (or conversely, blacklists) the right approach in guiding researchers to the best journals for their scholarly output? What about badges for publications (whether in traditional formats or not)? Or will such protective approaches simply expand existing issues associated with regard to metrics for use in gauging impact and/or reach?