FDUP investigates predatory practices in science publishing

a Volkswagen Foundation – Germany's largest private organization for promoting and supporting academic research – has just allocated approx. 1.6 million euros To one A project examining the scientific community's concerns about so-called predatory publishing practices. Teacher and researcher Rita Fariafrom University of Porto Faculty of Law (FDUP)is part of the international team that is part of the project, and contributes criminology knowledge to this research.

“Predatory publishing practices: paper tigers or current threats from evaluation systems?” (Predatory Publishing Practices: Paper Tigers or Real Threats to Evaluation Systems) is the name of a project that aims, through scientific data, to explain why predatory publishing practices (i.e., in predatory journals that are usually in exchange for exchange) are used in exchange for large payments and without Peer review does not control the quality of scientific publications.), nor does the scientific community's reaction to this use.

Recent changes in science evaluation systems, including more diverse quality standards, have increased the visibility of low-quality research, leading to waves of moral panic about the effects of predatory publishing practices on the scientific system. However, this concern has, as yet, no scientific basis and ignores the complex geopolitical relationships, the motivations of those investigating, and the center-periphery narrative inherent in the debate over publishing practices in so-called predatory journals.

Over the next four years, the team involved in the project will use mixed methodologies to investigate the relationships between science evaluation systems and (predatory) publishing practices, taking into account the contextual and social processes that mark them as deviant. Data will be collected in six scientific systems: Germany, Poland, Portugal, Nigeria, India and Brazil.

The team involved in the project will study predatory practices in science using data collected in six countries, including Portugal. (Image: D.)

This pioneering project highlights the criminology being developed at U Porto, highlighting the importance of this field of knowledge in the study of various forms of professional deviance, including in the sciences, a topic that has previously been the subject of Rita PhD Faria.

The allocated funding will allow FDUP to hire research fellows, among other resources, to advance this mission. The results obtained, in addition to producing analyzes on a new topic, are expected to influence the design of future science assessment systems in many countries around the world.

The project also includes the participation of Dimitty Steffen from Deutsches Zentrum für Hochschul- und Wissenschaftsforschung (Berlin, Germany), Emanuel Kulczycki from Adam Mickiewicz University (Poznań, Poland), Martin Reinhardt from Humboldt University Berlin, and Robert Merton Zentrum für Wissenschaftsforschung (Germany). ).

Regarding Volkswagen institution

a Volkswagen Foundation It is a private German non-profit organization aiming to promote and support academic research.

By initiative “Research research”, The Volkswagen Foundation funds interdisciplinary, multi-method and internationally oriented research projects that bring together the experiences of different communities. It supports not only the development of new knowledge, but also thinking about the strategic application of the results obtained in the context of science and higher education policy.