Free Online Presentation: A Discussion of Faculty and Predatory Journals: The Potential Role of Librarians
Presenters: Stephanie Wiegand, Nicole Webber, John Reynolds, & Jason Cohen
Live Session: Wednesday, September 17, 2025 1pm-2pm CT
Register here: A Discussion of Faculty and Predatory Journals
Sponsored by the ACRL ULS Professional Development Committee
The complexities of predatory publishing arise from two phenomena. First, the judgement of a journal to be predatory is not clear and true; rather the characteristics and behaviors of predatory journals exist on a spectrum and therefore classification as predatory is generally conditional. Second, the motivations of neither predatory publishers nor authors who submit manuscripts to such journals are transparent and faculty may receive as much benefit from publishing in predatory journals as do the journals. It is unsurprising that librarians are hesitant to step into conversational landmines with faculty and administrators regarding predatory publishing. Yet, in higher education, librarians are the obvious choice within the campus community to lead discussion and conduct outreach to faculty regarding academic publishing. In this panel presentation, we'll have a frank discussion about faculty and predatory journals and what role librarians can play in campus conversations.
Presenter Bios:
Stephanie Wiegand is a scholarly communication librarian and an associate professor at the University of Northern Colorado Libraries in Greeley, Colorado. She works primarily with graduate students and faculty and their research and publishing interests. Her work involves copyright, ETDs, coordinating learning opportunities and professional development, and so much more. She has wide-ranging research interests including faculty publication preferences, copyright, predatory journals, and ETD processes. Her MA is from the University of Missouri-Columbia's School of Information Science & Learning Technologies and she earned two undergraduate degrees from the University of Wyoming.
Nicole Webber is a scholarly communication librarian and associate professor at the University of Northern Colorado where she manages the university's institutional repository, UNCOpen. Her research interests include scholarly publishing trends, research impact, and the preservation of research and research data. She earned her MS in Library & Information Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
John Reynolds is a reference and education librarian and associate professor at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine's Louis Calder Memorial Library. He coordinates the library's evidence synthesis research and has co-authored more than 30 systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and scoping reviews on health science topics. He has a BA in History from Davidson College and an MLIS from Florida State University. His research focuses on the choices medical science and medical education researchers make when conducting and disseminating their work.
Jason Cohen is a Research Impact Librarian and assistant professor at the University of Miami Otto. G. Richter Library. His areas of interest include research impact services and analytics with an additional focus on institutional repositories and Research Information Management Systems. He is currently focused on research impact and metrics, including data analysis, reporting, and consulting across all three campuses at the University of Miami. He has a BS in Geography (Environmental Studies) from Florida State University and a MA in Geography from the University of Miami.
This free presentation is sponsored by the ACRL University Libraries Section Professional Development Committee. It will take place on Wednesday, September 17, 2025 1pm-2pm CT via Zoom. Register: A Discussion of Faculty and Predatory Journals
If you can't make this session but wish to view a recording later, please register so that you'll receive an email that includes a link to the video of the presentation.
Please direct questions and concerns to Matty Johnson (matthewjohnson@usf.edu) Co-Chair of the ACRL ULS Professional Development Committee. A full list of the committee's past programs is available on the ULS website.
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Jason Kruse
Undergraduate Engagement Librarian
Northwestern University
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