Scholarly Publishing Literacy at the University of South Florida Libraries: From Advising to Active Involvement

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Successful open access (OA) publishing in libraries requires careful guidance and organization. Support and services offered vary depending on available resources as well as the robustness of a library’s publishing program. DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM This article describes the connection between publishing services and scholarly publishing literacy through examples from the University of South Florida (USF) Libraries. The USF Libraries’ OA publishing program includes journals, textbooks, conference proceedings, and more. Our program balances advocating for open access with advising for actions that serve our partners’ goals. This invites trust, sustainable relationships, and opportunities for new work. NEXT STEPS At the USF Libraries, more work must be done to formally assess our efforts. Our program will also explore new ways to support the ethical standards expected of libraries by pursuing stronger policies on diversity and inclusion. Using everyday work to demonstrate best practices is a manageable way to strengthen scholarly publishing efforts. We hope to continue growing our services, empowering our partners, and exploring our roles as advisors and advocates.

Investigating academic library responses to predatory publishing in the United States, Canada and Spanish-speaking Latin America

“…Zhao (2014, p. 12) describes this as scholarly publishing literacy , emphasizing that “Academic libraries and librarians are well-positioned to play a key role in supporting researchers on scholarly publishing literacy.” Johnson and Boczar (2019, p. 12) also address scholarly publishing literacy, noting that it is key for librarians to consider the needs of the researcher that they are trying to assist. Johnson and Boczar (2019, p. 2) distinguish between “advocacy” (e.g. encouraging researchers to publish in legitimate Open Access journals) and “advising” (e.g.…”

“…Moreover, 55% (11/20) advise researchers about how to identify appropriate publication venues, while 35% (7/20) provide details about various metrics to evaluate journal quality (e.g., impact factor, ranking). It would be relevant and feasible to extend discussions about Open Access and journal quality to include information about predatory publishing practices so as to provide researchers with a well-rounded scholarly publishing literacy skillset, as advocated by Beall (2013), Zhao (2014) and Johnston and Boczar (2019).…”

“…Several authors have observed that university libraries are well positioned to help fill this gap and combat predatory publishing (e.g. Zhao, 2014; Johnston and Boczar, 2019; Cukier et al , 2020). First, the library is responsible for collection development, which means knowing about predatory journals and excluding them from the collection.…”

How are academic libraries in Spanish-speaking Latin America responding to new models of scholarly communication and predatory publishing?

“…Most available literature focuses on individual library’s efforts in more developed regions, such as North America (e.g. Babb and Dingwall, 2019; Johnston and Boczar, 2019; Lopez and Gaspard, 2020) or Australia (e.g. Zhao, 2014).…”