In the final episode of this four-part series, our guests dive into preventative measures against predatory publishing and emerging threats. To start, Ruth Bailey, Journal Auditor at Cabells, explains how open access has shifted predatory publishing practices, with problematic journals taking advantage of author processing charges that have become normalized in the OA market. Next, Ashley Carroll, Project Manager at Cabells, and Mike Bisaccio, Director of Marketing & Communications at Cabells, outline what researchers need to watch out for when looking to publish or read published research. Last, Yasmeen Zubair, Journals Manager at Cabells, encourages researchers to report suspicious journals to Cabells, and Ashley explores how librarians can support scholars throughout the research process by recognizing misinformation and helping patrons identify it.

Editor’s Note: As Ashley informed us after the interview, the correct number of paper retractions last year was more than 10,000, not 20,000.

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In the third episode of this four-part series, Ritu Dhand, Chief Scientific Officer of Springer Nature, underscores the need to engage with and support the Global South in scholarly communication. She walks through the rising research output and impact from nonwestern nations in recent years and the unconscious bias in peer reviewers and editorial boards that prevent this scholarship from reaching a larger audience. Further, Ritu explains the core tenets of inclusive science—publishing all quality research rather than the traditional (and outdated) idea that a journal’s high impact factor correlates with selectivity and low output. Finally, she chats about equitable open access and defines regional novelty and its connection to inclusive science and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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In the third episode of our four-part series on predatory publishing, our guests share key steps of the evaluative process for Cabells Predatory Reports. As Yasmeen Zubair, Journals Manager at Cabells, explains, the 74 criteria help identify a journal’s intent to deceive and are updated according to input from scholars, social media chatter, and emerging trends. In addition, Ruth Bailey, Journal Auditor at Cabells, walks through problematic publishing red flags, such as a lack of plagiarism policies on a journal’s website, quick turnaround times without the appropriate number of staff, and inconsistent publishing schedules. Last, Yasmeen and Ruth share how Cabells’s holistic, evidence-based approach avoids automation and the exploitative—though not necessarily predatory—publishing practices they keep an eye on to stay up to date on the industry.

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In the second episode of this four-part series, Ritu Dhand, Chief Scientific Officer at Springer Nature, digs into Springer Nature’s editorial and publication strategies that support the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Aiming to create community and collaboration around the Goals, Springer has introduced initiatives to make SDG content more discoverable and fit the modern scholar’s needs. Mobile-friendly online platforms, lay summaries appropriate for interdisciplinary scholarship, and frequently updated live references buttress this work. Ritu also explains the business factors that went into Springer’s adoption of the SDGs and the sustainable publishing practices implemented internally. Last, she shares the range of conferences, webinars, white papers, and content hubs available from a customer point of view that underpin SDG publishing and awareness.

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In the second episode of this four-part series, our guests from scholarly analytics service Cabells dig into predatory journal tactics and the characteristics of the journal market that make it vulnerable to predatory practices. First, Ruth Bailey, Journal Auditor, and Ashley Carroll, Project Manager, explain how the online journal environment, prevalence of open access publication charges, and lack of central authority against problematic publishing allow predatory journals to proliferate. Next, Ashley and Yasmeen Zubair, Journals Manager, walk through the subject areas at risk (hint—it’s all of them!) and the strategies predatory journals use to appear as legitimate and enticing as possible to researchers. Finally, our guests reflect on the pain points of the scholarly communication workflow that predatory journals exploit, such as removing barriers to publication and offering quick turnaround and publication times.

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Formally adopted in 2015, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are fast approaching their 2030 end date. To recruit the publishing industry, the UN introduced the SDG Publishers Compact in 2020, an open agreement that encourages stakeholders to adopt sustainable business strategies and publish content in support of the goals. In this four-part series, we discuss the publishing industry’s contributions to the SDGs, and how Springer Nature became a key advocate, choosing to align its editorial strategy, business outlook, and internal organization with the goals.

In the first episode of this series, Ritu Dhand chats about her role at Springer Nature as Chief Scientific Officer, sharing her work in supporting the editors of Springer Nature’s portfolio of more than 3,000 journals. She then provides a refresher on how the SDGs originated and the objectives of the SDG Publishers Compact. In addition, Ritu discusses the key collaborators who are advancing Springer Nature’s SDG work internally and the scale at which its publishing operation supports the effort.

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More than an inconvenience or nuisance, predatory publishing practices can inflict lasting harm onto scholarship, researchers, and the academic publishing landscape. To discuss this incessant and, as one guest frames it, “whack-a-mole” issue, the speakers for this four-part series provide their expertise as part of scholarly analytics service Cabells. Evaluating potentially predatory journals through its rigorous standards and criteria, Cabells publishes Predatory Reports to track the ever-growing list of problematic journals. This series explores the tactics of such journals and preventative measures academics can take to help identify and avoid predatory publishers.

In the first episode of this series, Ashley Carroll, Project Manager, Yasmeen Zubair, Journals Manager, Ruth Bailey, Journal Auditor, and Mike Bisaccio, Director of Marketing & Communications, define predatory publishing, underscoring a journal’s display of fraudulent or deceptive behaviors to appear legitimate with the clear intent of collecting fees from researchers. Further, Mike shares the overwhelming number of predatory journals identified by Cabells, while Ruth walks through the various stakeholders vulnerable to these journals and what’s at stake for the scholarly community.

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In the final episode of this four-part series on the recent white paper from Technology from Sage and Skilltype on the librarian skills landscape, our guests look at how artificial intelligence technologies will (or won’t) impact the library workforce and successful support mechanisms to help staff develop their skills. First, David Erlandson, Head of Cataloguing and Metadata Services at Rice University Fondren Library, and Matthew Weldon, Library Patron Consultant at Technology from Sage, underscore that AI services have not replaced any of their own tasks, adding that the human element still serves as an essential function of library work.

Further, Marcy Simons, Director of Hesburgh Libraries Organizational and Personnel Development at the University of Notre Dame, explains that she encourages colleagues at her institution to see artificial intelligence as an opportunity to reassess workloads and let go of monotonous tasks. Tony Zanders, Founder & CEO of Skilltype, highlights two key issues he’s observed in relation to automated tools: an ongoing global shortage of library professionals and remote roles that lack interpersonal connections becoming automated or reduced. To close, our guests emphasize recognition, opportunities for career advancement, communication, and community-building as necessary building blocks for aiding library skill-building and professional development.

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In the final episode of this four-part series, Dale Jacobs, author of On Comics and Grief, discusses the title’s epilogue and the future of comics studies. First, Dale walks through the feedback he received from peer reviewers that encouraged him to conclude on a more hopeful note. Highlighting the benefits of peer review, he chats about his decision to include reviewer comments in the epilogue. Next, Dale tells the tale (or tail?) of a key figure that showed up in the text, Dale and his wife Heidi’s cat, Klaus. A stray that eventually found a permanent home with Dale and Heidi, Klaus helped Dale through a time of loss and overall burnout, earning a shoutout in the epilogue. Finally, Dale looks ahead to topics in comics scholarship still left untapped, including “typical comics” outside the superhero genre and the overarching aim to keep the personal within academic work.

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In the third episode of this four-part series, our guests tackle the on the ground realities of librarian skill development following the recent white paper from Technology from Sage and Skilltype, Librarian Futures Part III: The Librarian Skills Landscape. Marcy Simons, Director of Hesburgh Libraries Organizational and Personnel Development at the University of Notre Dame, and Tony Zanders, Founder & CEO of Skilltype, dig into how library schools have failed to address the evolving demands of academic librarianship, even before the introduction of artificial intelligence tools. Marcy notes the lack of consistency across library and information science programs, while Tony highlights how Skilltype aims to help library schools understand today’s environment and adjust curriculum quickly and accordingly.

Further, Marcy and David Erlandson, Head of Cataloguing and Metadata Services at Rice University Fondren Library, chat about findings in the report on student success and how their libraries support this initiative. Finally, Tony and Matthew Weldon, Library Patron Consultant at Technology from Sage, reflect on the report’s finding that librarians value building transferable skills rather than those specific to certain products—in the rapidly changing landscape, flexibility allows for resiliency and autonomy in the profession.

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