Open access medical journals: promise, perils and pitfalls

The number of both print and open access (OA) journals has increased dramatically. Although electronic availability of information on the Internet offers great potential for information sharing, it also gives rise to "predatory" journals and deceptive publishers that target naïve academic authors with false promises of easily fulfilling their "publish or perish" obligation. Legitimate and respected OA journals also exist. This talk will focus on the potential professional and ethical perils of publishing in "predatory" journals, as well as the opportunities and barriers associated with publishing in legitimate OA journals. Although it is difficult to distinguish between the two types of OA journals, I will suggest methods to help identify those that may not be legitimate. Unfortunately, this is not a simple task; there is no shortcut. Rather, it takes some effort -- on the part of authors, mentors, colleagues, professional organizations, and librarians -- and possibly IRBs and bioethics committees.