Despite growing awareness of predatory publishing and research on its market characteristics, the defining attributes of fraudulent journals remain controversial. This study aims to develop a better understanding of quality criteria for scholarly journals by analysing journals and publishers indexed in blacklists of predatory journals and whitelists of legitimate journals and the lists’ inclusion criteria. As a result, there is an overlap between journals and publishers included in blacklists and whitelists. Blacklists and whitelists differ in their criteria for quality and the weight given to different dimensions of quality.

A new model for developing a university press has been designed to be applicable to a range of business models, including subscription, open access and hybrid. The guiding principles, publishing stages and strategic points all constitute the building blocks necessary to implement and maintain a sustainable university press. The model highlights the overall importance of working in partnership and building relationships as key to developing and maintaining a successful press.

Since its launch in September 2018, Plan S has reinvigorated the global debate on Open Access to scholarly publications. The 600 plus inputs received allowed the coalition to make changes that take into consideration the views expressed by the diverse communities affected. Changes include an extension to the formal commencement point for Plan S which will now take effect from 1 January 2021. This new timetable provides more opportunity for researchers, institutions, publishers, and repositories to make changes and for funders’ policies to develop and take effect. The Plan S principles now also reflect a commitment made by the funders to revise methods of research assessment along the lines of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA).

Using Wikidata as a hub for institutional identifiers is one of the many potential uses of Wikidata for libraries. Many organizations maintain unique identifiers for people, subjects, works, etc. If these IDs are all added to Wikidata then the user could seamlessly access data from dozens of sources through the Wikidata ID.

The Library of Congress (LoC) maintains many authority files that are widely used. The Network Development and MARC Standard Office maintains the Linked Open Data version of the Name Authority File (NAF) and Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) at the site id.loc.gov. With id.loc.gov, the LoC maintains links to many other institutions authority files including the French and German national libraries, other government services (Department of Agriculture) and other cultural institutions like the Getty Museum. Wikidata ids have been included in the id.loc.gov system.

Topic: Eye on the Horizon

Register now: Early bird rate ends 1 July 2019

The preliminary programme is online.

For the first time in 16 years, the Library of Congress is rolling out an all-new CIP (Cataloging in Publication) database. PrePub Book Link (PPBL) overhauls the outdated 2003 system. It took more than one and a half years, involves more than 3,000 major scholarly and trade publishers and more than 50,000 books each year. “It’s a very significant milestone,” says Karl Debus-López, chief of the U.S. Programs, Law, and Literature Division and former Chair of the ISSN International Centre Governing Board, which oversees the program. “It’s a success story of collaborative work.” The new system is faster, allows publishers to log-in by multiple accounts and attach a PDF file for the book, and provides auto-filled data boxes to streamline the process.

Couperin, French Consortium of Academic and Research Institutions for Access to Digital Publication,s is a non-profit association funded by membership fees and the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research. To celebrate its 20th anniversary, Couperin is organising a workshop entitled What developments for consortia in the age of open science?

The programme is online.

The Transpose database, which launched on 13 June 2019, assembles thousands of science journals’ editorial policies to boost transparency and accessibility. The database was compiled by a mostly US-based group of researchers working towards reforming publishing. The database includes details about peer review, preprints and editorial policies that are often difficult or impossible to find on journal websites.

The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) is organising a webinar about microPublications on June 26th, 2019.

Chair: Heather Staines, Head of Partnerships, MIT Knowledge Futures Group

Cost is the No. 1 reason why colleges end their “big deals” with publishers, but not everyone thinks the agreements are really that expensive. Kent Anderson, CEO of publishing and data analytics company RedLink, has argued that the subscription model is actually “pretty efficient” for institutions. According to Roger Schonfeld, director of the libraries, scholarly communication and museums program at Ithaka S+R, the rise in open-access publishing has decreased the value of subscription deals as more content is available for free. To conclude, he thinks that the big deal as a bundled subscription model is definitely under threat.