Workshop: Workshops on trends in academic journal publishing and research integrity

Keeping abreast of the latest trends in scholarly publication is necessary for researchers, especially ESL authors. Therefore, Editage recently conducted eight workshops on ‘Trends in Academic Journal Publishing & Research Integrity’ at reputed South Korean institutions, including universities and hospitals. They were attended by over 800 doctors, researchers, journal editors, as well as university and hospital administrators.

The eight workshops were conducted over 6 days, with one each at the following institutions: Chosun University College of Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Sookmyung Women's University, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Asan Medical Center, and Soonchunhyang Hospital. One workshop was also conducted for the Korea Association of Medical Journal Editors.

They were delivered by Dr. Elizabeth Wager, an academic publication trainer who has given training on behalf of Editage Insights for over five years. As an independent consultant, Dr. Wager has trained doctors, journal editors, and medical writers on six continents. She was Chair of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) between 2009 and 2012 and is a member of the ethics committees for the BMJ and the World Association of Medical Editors; she is therefore an internationally recognized authority on ethical publication practices.

In these workshops, Dr. Wager discussed publishing trends such as:

• Open access
• Predatory journals
• Peer review variants and new models
• Metrics

She explained these concepts, emphasized why authors should be familiar with them, and shared some important tips that can guide them when they make publication-related decisions.

She also discussed important aspects of publication ethics that researchers need to know. Authors may at times be unfamiliar with some ethical issues and the pitfalls associated with them. So she covered these topics: 

• Plagiarism
• Data fabrication and falsification
• Misleading authorship
• Selective reporting
• Conflicts of interest

She used examples and cases to explain how some of these problems can negatively impact research, the scientific fraternity and community at large, as well as the authors involved.