UNS — The UPT Library of Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta held a webinar entitled “Scholarly Integrity: Understanding Academic Publishing and Avoiding Predatory Practices”. The event was held via Zoom meeting on Monday (10/7/2023).
The Head of UPT Library UNS, Burhanudin Harahap, S.H., M.H., M.SI., Ph.D., in his speech and opening remarks that the webinar was held with the aim of increasing knowledge about scientific journal publication properly. “Through this webinar, I hope to be able to communicate the research findings and ideas that can be further developed by other researchers and thinkers, ultimately leading to successful submissions to high-quality and reputable journals at the national and international level,” Burhanudin explained.
Riah Wiratningsih, S.S., M.Sc., as the moderator of this webinar, mentioned that this was the second session after the successful organization of a previous webinar on a related topic. Riah also provided background on the webinar before the material presentation session commenced. “The underying question that prompted this webinar is: what do we do with our writing after we have generated our ideas and concepts to produce scientific work?” Riah said.
The webinar focused on four related topics: how to select journals, evaluate journals quality, manage revisions from editors and reviewers, and avoid publication in predatory journals. The speaker in this webinar was Dr. Johan Jang, a customer consultant from Elsevier. The selection of these topics was based on the real-life circumstances in the academic environment, where interactions with journals are frequent and the goal is to publish journals effectively and ethically.
This webinar discussed an overview and future challenges for Indonesian researchers, along with evaluating and selecting journals, managing editors and reviewers’ comments, and avoiding publication in questionable journals.
One of the challenges in Indonesia is journal publication, as presented in the data by Dr. Johan Jang. In the last 20 years, Indonesia has seen an increase in the number of publications, but this growth has not been accompanied by a corresponding improvement in quality. In fact, the quality of published journals has decreased. While the quantity of publications from Indonesia is significant, a large portion consists of conference papers rather than journals.
Regarding journal selection, Dr. Johan Jang mentioned several considerations that need to be taken into account. “Before publication, there are several considerations when choosing a journal. We must decide whether our article will be submitted to a subscription journal or an open access journal, as these two have contrasting characteristics,” Dr. Johan Jang explained.
Furthermore, in the publication process, editors, reviewers, and authors each have distinct yet interconnected roles. In concluding his presentation, Dr. Johan Jang provided insights on how to avoid publication in predatory journals. “Predatory journals often prioritize business over science. To avoid publishing in predatory journals, we should first avoid paper brokers, secondly avoid guaranteed publications, thirdly steer clear of hijacked journals, and lastly, refrain from engaging in citation manipulation,” he added.
The webinar was attended by 90 participants, including librarians, library staff, lecturers, university students and the general public. After the material presentation, it was followed by a discussion and question-and-answer session. Humas UNS