RCR Forum: The Empowered Author (GS714.07)

The Empowered Author: understanding changes in scholarly publishing, protecting your interests, and promoting ethical publishing practices

This workshop will start with an overview of how the dominant model of scholarly publishing really works - the business behind it, the incentives, and things to look out for - to lay the context for how we got to where we are now in scholarly publishing. We’ll then cover some emerging models of research dissemination, like different models of open access, and discuss how they work, the pros and cons of each, and what’s happening with funder public access requirements. We’ll review publication contracts, and discuss what they do and how to protect your own rights and interests and avoid scams when you submit to a journal. Finally, we’ll conclude by talking a bit about research and impact metrics, some of their unintended side-effects, and what we could do to improve how all of this works and promote more ethical and equitable research and publishing practices.

The workshop, offered via Zoom, will include a mix of lecture and group activities, and is eligible for Graduate School RCR credit for GS714.

Contact: paolo.mangiafico@duke.edu