Calling all researchers to participate in a landmark survey on academic predatory journals and conferences

IAP is extending its landmark survey on predatory journals and conferences to the end of December 2020.  It is now available in seven different languages: Arabic, English, French, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. If you haven't done so already, please complete the survey at https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/5949743/Combatting-Academic-Predatory-Journals-and-Conferences and share it with your research colleagues and professional networks.  If you have completed it already, then THANK YOU but please do not complete it again!

This survey is a vital part of IAP's study "Combatting Academic Predatory Journals and Conferences". As before, all researchers, in any discipline, in any country, at any stage of their career, are invited to participate.  As an academician or researcher, you may well receive regular requests to submit your papers or register for conferences, and find it hard to tell legitimate requests that might benefit your research and career from predatory or unethical ones that might damage them, perhaps irreparably. Predatory journals, publishers, and conferences are on the increase and threaten to cause long-term, widespread damage to the global research enterprise and its community. The true extent globally is not known, nor is the full impact, which makes addressing predatory practices very difficult. By participating in this survey, and helping to disseminate it widely, you can help IAP recommend effective ways to combat predatory practices and protect researchers everywhere.

Please complete the survey in your individual capacity, reflecting on your personal experience rather than on behalf of your institution(s).  You can find language options in the top right hand corner of the survey, which should take 15-20 minutes to complete.  Please remember that there are no wrong or right answers and your responses will be anonymised.  The final deadline for completion is 31 December 2020.

If you are not an academician or researcher but would like to provide evidence for this project, then you can write to the project secretariat at secretariat@iapartnership.org, again by 31 December 2020, addressing the following questions:

• Which sector do you represent? Publishers/ Libraries and indexing services/ Universities and HEIs/ International science governance organisations/Other (please specify)
• To what extent do you think predatory and unethical practices in academic journals and conferences are a problem?
• How are they impacting your (i) sector; (ii) your organisation; and/or (iii) you personally?
• What is your sector and/or your organisation doing to combat these practices now or in the pipeline? Please provide examples of interventions that constitute good practice (things that are working well) and/or bad practice (things that are not working well)
•  What do you think are the root causes of predatory practices; and, accordingly, what main systemic changes need to happen to minimise them?
• How can this IAP project best add value and make an impact in combatting predatory practices?  What sort of recommendations do you think would be most practicable and impactful?

Many thanks in advance!

The IAP Working Group on Predatory Academic Journals and Conferences