School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, K1G 5Z3, Canada.
Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, Unity Health Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, M5B 1T8, Canada.
F1000Res. 2021 Feb 11;10:100. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.27745.2. eCollection 2021.
Funded health research is being published in journals that many regard as "predatory", deceptive, and non-credible. We do not currently know whether funders provide guidance on how to select a journal in which to publish funded health research. We identified the largest 46 philanthropic, public, development assistance, public-private partnership, and multilateral funders of health research by expenditure, globally as well as four public funders from lower-middle income countries, from the list at https://healthresearchfunders.org. One of us identified guidance on disseminating funded research from each funders' website (August/September 2017), then extracted information about selecting journals, which was verified by another assessor. Discrepancies were resolved by discussion. Results were summarized descriptively. This research used publicly available information; we did not seek verification with funding bodies. The majority (44/50) of sampled funders indicated funding health research. 38 (of 44, 86%) had publicly available information about disseminating funded research, typically called "policies" (29, 76%). Of these 38, 36 (95%) mentioned journal publication for dissemination of which 13 (36.11%) offer variable guidance on selecting a journal, all of which relate to the funder's open access mandate. Six funders (17%) outlined publisher requirements or features by which to select a journal. One funder linked to a document providing features of journals to look for (e.g. listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals) and to be wary of (e.g., no journal scope statement, uses direct and unsolicited marketing). Few funders provided guidance on how to select a journal in which to publish funded research. Funders have a duty to ensure that the research they fund is discoverable by others. This research is a benchmark for funder guidance on journal selection prior to the January 2021 implementation of Plan S (a global, funder-led initiative to ensure immediate, open access to funded, published research).
资助的健康研究正在发表在许多人认为是“掠夺性的”、“欺骗性的”和“不可信的”期刊上。我们目前不知道资助者是否提供了关于如何选择发表资助的健康研究的期刊的指导。我们从 https://healthresearchfunders.org 上列出的全球最大的 46 家慈善、公共、发展援助、公私合作伙伴关系和多边健康研究资助者以及四个来自中下收入国家的公共资助者中确定了最大的资助者，我们从每个资助者的网站上确定了传播资助研究的指导（2017 年 8 月/9 月），然后提取了有关选择期刊的信息，由另一位评估者进行了核实。有分歧的地方通过讨论解决。结果以描述性方式进行了总结。本研究使用了公开可用的信息；我们没有向资助机构寻求核实。抽样资助者中的大多数（44/50）表示资助健康研究。其中 38 个（44 个中的 38 个，86%）有公开的关于传播资助研究的信息，通常称为“政策”（29 个，76%）。在这 38 个中，有 36 个（95%）提到了期刊发表作为传播方式，其中 13 个（36.11%）对选择期刊提供了可变的指导，这些指导都与资助者的开放获取任务有关。有 6 个资助者概述了出版商的要求或特征，以供选择期刊。一个资助者链接到一个提供要寻找的期刊特征的文档（例如，列入开放获取期刊目录）和要警惕的特征（例如，没有期刊范围声明，使用直接和未经请求的营销）。很少有资助者提供关于如何选择发表资助研究的期刊的指导。资助者有责任确保他们资助的研究能够被他人发现。这项研究是资助者在 2021 年 1 月实施计划 S（一项全球、由资助者主导的倡议，旨在确保对资助的已发表研究立即开放获取）之前对期刊选择的指导的基准。
