Open access and predatory publishing: a survey of the publishing practices of academic pharmacists and nurses in the United States.

Objective: Academics are under great pressure to publish their research, the rewards for which are well known (tenure, promotion, grant funding, professional prestige). As open access publishing gains acceptance as a publishing option, researchers may choose a "predatory publisher." The purpose of this study is to investigate the motivations and rationale of pharmacy and nursing academics in the United States to publish in open access journals that may be considered "predatory." Methods: A 26-item questionnaire was programmed in Qualtrics and distributed electronically to approximately 4,500 academic pharmacists and nurses, 347 of whom completed questionnaires (~8%). Pairwise correlations were performed followed by a logistic regression to evaluate statistical associations between participant characteristics and whether participants had ever paid an article processing fee (APF). Results: Participants who had published more articles, were more familiar with predatory publishing, and who were more concerned about research metrics and tenure were more likely to have published in open access journals. Moderate to high institutional research intensity has an impact on the likelihood of publishing open access. The majority of participants who acknowledged they had published in a predatory journal took no action after realizing the journal was predatory and reported no negative impact on their career for having done so. Conclusion: The results of this study provide data and insight into publication decisions made by pharmacy and nursing academics. Gaining a better understanding of who publishes in predatory journals and why can help address the problems associated with predatory publishing at the root.

Information literacy instruction for pharmacy students: a pharmacy librarian reflects on a year of teaching.

Librarians have ever-expanding teaching responsibilities in many academic disciplines. Assessment of learning outcomes requires longitudinal evaluation to measure true retention of skills and knowledge. This is especially important in the health sciences, including pharmacy, where librarians take an active role in teaching students to help prepare them for a profession in which solid information literacy skills are required to safely and effectively provide evidence-based care to patients. In this commentary, I reflect on a year of teaching in a pharmacy program and consider the outcomes of my instruction, areas for improvement, student retention of learning, assessment challenges, faculty-librarian collaboration, and continued support for library instruction in the pharmacy curriculum.