The democratization of scientific publishing

We follow at least three rules for choosing where to submit our work, and generally favor quick publishing and/or open access platforms. First, we make sure the journal is indexed in PubMed, so that it can be retrieved by searching; secondly, we identify and avoid ‘predatory’ journals – sham journals that profit by charging unsuspecting contributors fake ‘author fees’ [2]; and thirdly we ensure the journal is affiliated with a credible, even if small, publisher or a recognized professional association.

We agree with the notion that publishing a paper in a top tier journal may help secure better employment as well as help in being awarded major grants or prizes, among other benefits. However, these journals have some inherent issues. We recently argued that irreproducibility of papers in high-impact journals may be more frequent, and more dangerous (termed as ‘malignant’), than in lower impact journals (termed as ‘benign’) [3‐5]. We and others have also repeatedly argued that the publication of a paper in a prestigious journal should not be used to extrapolate that the paper itself is valuable, impactful, or of high quality [6, 7]. We consider that other measures of impact, such as citations, patents, startup companies, and development of consumer products, may be of greater importance. Consequently, we advise our trainees to submit their papers to prestigious journals, if they so wish, but to be emotionally prepared to accept rejections, in many cases without their paper even being reviewed.

Young investigators may be prefixed with the JIF. However, we recently predicted the future demise of the JIF and, indeed, we have seen our prediction come true with certain journals [6, 7]. To date, an increasing number of journals prefer not to advertise, or even seek to obtain, their JIF [8]. Furthermore, we recently proposed a new factor, called the CAPCI (citation average per citable item), to avoid using the misleading word ‘impact’ [8], as also proposed by others [9‐13].

Not many senior researchers discuss the fact that submitting to the highest-impact journals may be associated with adverse effects, especially for their trainees. It is now common knowledge that anxiety and depression among graduate students, post-docs, and young faculty is on the rise, with the issue attracting significant attention [14‐16]. One reason, among many, is the tremendous competition between young investigators for jobs, publications, awards, grants, etc. Rejection of papers in high-impact journals is, understandably, painful and damaging to the morale and self-esteem of early career researchers; one of us (EPD) has witnessed these adversities very frequently over 30 years. Repeated cycles of rejections could inflict depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses, or even suicidal thoughts [16‐18].

In our view, the importance of publishing in high-impact journals (many of which are closed access, and therefore subscription journals) is progressively decreasing due to the rise of open access journals and other publication options. In open access journals, upon publication, research is immediately visible in full text to international audiences who can read and cite it. It is difficult to envisage that any researcher would decide whether or not to read a highly relevant paper for their research based on the journal’s rating by the JIF (unless, of course, the journal is categorized as ‘predatory’). A recent analysis demonstrated that the number of citations accrued by a paper is not correlated with the JIF if the journal is open access [19]. Consequently, there is no reason why a paper should lose any citations or audience attention due to being published in an indexed, open access journal.

There are also alternative methods for the publication of research, such as submission to a pre-print server. Pre-print servers are repositories that archive papers and make them available to readers without peer review. The major advantages of such a practice are the immediate visibility and the establishment of some priority in a specific subject. Thus, possible delays with the review process (which sometimes extend to a year or more) are avoided. Our students are increasingly advised to submit to such pre-print servers, yet they are suspicious that somebody may steal their ideas prior to formal acceptance by a peer-reviewed journal. The disadvantages of pre-print servers are that you may lose the benefit of peer review to improve your paper before it becomes public and that some journals have strict qualification rules regarding the prior submission to a pre-print server.

We are now increasingly advising our young associates to consider indexed, open access, quick publication journals. While practices vary, some of these journals have additional unique features besides being open access. For instance, they will accept and post a paper on their website (but not in PubMed) prior to formal acceptance by peer review, the reviewers are identifiable, and the reviews are public, and/or they require the submission of complete primary data to allow reanalysis by others. Following acceptance, the paper is freely available in full text in PubMed. Our experience is that, despite some concerns about the JIF, which may not even be used by these journals or could be relatively low, our trainees are thrilled to see their paper in PubMed, sometimes within 2–4 months from submission. Such fast visibility is a highly effective anti-anxiety and anti-depressive remedy. Nevertheless, our trainees realize that, under this publication model, their paper will be under permanent review, since readers can post comments at any time, even years after publication. A further perceived disadvantage would be the nominal fee paid by the authors to cover production costs; yet, due to competition, this fee is steadily decreasing. However, authors must realize that there are costs involved in the publication of a paper, even in open access, and that these costs should be met by authors, institutions, or funders. Finally, we also tell our trainees that no Nobel committee will deny them the Prize due to their work having been published in an open access journal without or with a low impact factor.

The open access publishing model has attracted increased attention in recent times following the demand of some scientific opinion leaders that all papers published in closed access journals become freely available in open access format, quickly after publication, without cost to the authors. One concern is that closed access journals could impede scientific progress due to their usually slower publication schedules and paywalls; this could be particularly damaging for very fast-growing disciplines such as artificial intelligence. Some authors are even threatening to boycott some highly visible journals if they insist on closed access or charging publication fees in the open access model [20]. Recently, two of the world’s largest biomedical research funders – Wellcome Trust and the Gates Foundation – joined another 13 funders in backing a plan to make all papers resulting from work they fund open access on publication by 2020 [21].