New Tool in Town: Identifying the Good, the Bad, and the Predatory OA Journal

As publishing models continue to change and evolve, libraries have remained constant in their pursuit of information access. After nearly three decades, academic institutions are still adapting to open access publishing. At a medium-size, private institution, a library working group was formed in order to alleviate rising faculty concerns on predatory OA journals. In Spring 2015, three librarians formed the Credible Journal Criteria Working Group (CJCWG) in response to faculty inquiries on open access (OA) publishing, particularly, how to evaluate OA journals for quality and credibility. This new project was an exciting  opportunity to extend the OA conversations at the local institution. The development of the Journal Evaluation Rubric was an institution-wide collaboration, including feedback and input from the Office of Assessment,

faculty from the science and engineering departments and librarians. This poster presentation will share the process of developing a rubric for evaluating OA journals, findings from the faculty focus group and ideas to implement the rubric in your own institution.