False dichotomy: Predatory journals and inclusivity and scholarly publishing by Dr Larissa Shamseer

About the speaker

Dr Larissa Shamseer (MSc, PhD) is a CIHR postdoctoral fellow with the Knowledge Translation Program of the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute in Toronto. Her research to date has focused on optimizing research transparency to reduce research waste. She is currently researching equity in academic publishing and reward. Dr Shamseer completed her PhD in Epidemiology at the University of Ottawa in 2021, where she led early work characterizing predatory publishing. She has over 70 publications across these areas, including several first-author publications in high-impact journals (e.g. Nature, BMJ). Dr Shamseer also led the development of the widely-used Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P 2015) guideline (cited over 9000 times, Scopus), and was on the steering committee updating the PRISMA 2020 Statement. You can find Dr Shamseer on Twitter @LarissaShamseer and learn more about her work on ORCID.

About the talk

So-called “predatory” journals are pervasive in scholarly publishing and their ever-increasing presence is alarming to the science and publishing communities. Predatory journals and their content are considered untrustworthy due to their failure (and sometimes false claims) to peer review or carry out standard journal practices. Some journals once-labelled as “predatory” may not intentionally carry out nefarious or deceptive operations. Further, potentially useful research may be contained in predatory journals. This talk considers the origins and definitions of the term “predatory” journal, why researchers publish in them, their impact on research integrity, and advancing equity and transparency in scholarly publishing.