Opinion Piece: “‘At-risk Articles’: The Imperative to Recover Lost Science”

The opinion piece linked to below was written by Jeanette Hatherill, Scholarly Communication Librarian, University of Ottawa was recently published by Insights.

Title

At-risk Articles’: The Imperative to Recover Lost Science

Author

Jeanette Hatherill
Scholarly Communication Librarian, University of Ottawa

Source

Insights 33 (1): 33.
DOI: 10.1629/uksg.514

Abstract

Deceptive publishers have been discussed and written about from a multitude of perspectives and in a variety of disciplines, but scant attention has been devoted to a particular aspect of the issue: How we as scholarly communities are dealing with the research that appears in these outlets. It is problematic that the question is not being addressed, as this research is at risk of being lost. It is at risk because articles that appear in deceptive publications are not indexed, so they are less visible, discoverable and citable. Additionally, they are not preserved and therefore likely to disappear should the publisher cease its activities or neglect to carry out basic maintenance on their archives and servers. Furthermore, it is particularly problematic because this lost science is potentially valuable. In this article, it is argued that, rather than continuing to risk the loss of this potentially important research by ignoring its existence, research disciplines should look at developments in open peer review and the increasing use of preprint servers for their potential to recover and reintegrate these at-risk articles into the scholarly record.

Direct to Full Text (approx. 3580 words)

Filed under: Archives and Special Collections, Companies (Publishers/Vendors), News, Publishing