Meeting summary
The meeting focused on Kyle's presentation about open access publications and preprint servers. Kyle discussed the history, benefits, and challenges of open access publishing, including concerns about high publication charges (APCs) and potential predatory practices. He also covered preprint servers, explaining their purpose, benefits, and drawbacks, including issues around scooping and public perception. The group discussed DePaul's limited ability to negotiate APC waivers with major publishers due to budget constraints, and shared experiences about accessing journal articles and using interlibrary loan. The conversation concluded with a discussion about potentially replacing the next meeting's planned topic on containerization with a GitHub/Git workshop to help participants better understand version control tools.
Kyle presented on open access publishing and preprint servers, covering the history, benefits, and challenges of both. He discussed how open access has grown significantly in recent decades but raised concerns about high publication charges (APCs) and potential predatory practices by some publishers. Regarding preprint servers, Kyle explained their benefits for sharing research early and getting feedback, but also highlighted drawbacks such as the risk of being scooped by competitors and challenges in public understanding of preprints. The presentation included specific examples from chemistry and other fields, as well as discussion of quality issues in open access publishing.
The group discussed challenges with journal access and open access negotiations at DePaul University. Kelly explained that while the library has secured some discounts with publishers like the American Chemical Society, Cambridge University Press, and Company of Biologists, funding cuts have limited their ability to negotiate full APC coverage with larger publishers like Oxford University Press, Taylor and Francis, and Springer. Kyle highlighted how lack of journal access is becoming a barrier to scholarship, noting that some colleagues now need to use interlibrary loan services, and suggested that promotion and tenure guidelines should be adjusted to reflect current resource limitations. The discussion also touched on preprints, with Kyle sharing insights about their adoption in chemistry and Kayla mentioning that the criminology preprint platform started in 2020 but still needs wider adoption.
The group discussed preprints and their role in scientific publishing. They explored issues around timing of preprints, quality control, and the impact of preprints on citation rates and career advancement. The conversation touched on challenges with open access journals and promotion tenure guidelines. The conversation ended with a decision to replace the planned containerization discussion with a GitHub/Git workshop, as more participants expressed interest in learning GitHub basics. Vahid agreed to send a meeting summary and schedule the next session focused on GitHub training.
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