Implementation of promotion standards to discourage publishing in questionable journals: the role of the library
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Date
2022-04
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Publisher
Elseviere
Abstract
To discourage faculty members from publishing in questionable journals, tenure and promotion standards in
which the librarians play an active role can been developed. These standards have been effective in terms of
identifying publications in questionable outlets. However, we need to explore how these systems are perceived
by the main actors in research, which are the researchers. This study explores the perception of the researchers at
a university in Ghana who have been evaluated by a system implemented to discourage publishing in ques
tionable publication outlets. We collected data using an online, largely qualitative questionnaire distributed to all
faculty members that had applied for promotion since the implementation of the verification process. The results
show that the majority of the faculty members are satisfied or very satisfied with the new tenure and promotion
standards. There are differences across faculties, and this seems to be tied to concerns about the choice of
publication outlets. Furthermore, the dissatisfied faculty members are concerned with the role of the library in
the verification process whereas the satisfied trust the judgement of the librarians. We discuss implications of the
results as well as future development of the standards.
Description
This article is published by Elsevier, 2022 and is also available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2022.102532
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Citation
The Journal of Academic Librarianship 48 (2022) 102532