OA Benefits: Image by Danny Kingsley and Sarah Brow from Rhodes University Library

On September 24th, BMCC faculty gathered virtually for a webinar titled The Current State of Scholarly Publishing: Open Access and More. Co-hosted by the BMCC Library, CETLS, and the Office of Research, this event provided an overview of the challenges and opportunities within today’s scholarly publishing landscape. This webinar was the first in a BMCC-specific series aimed at equipping our faculty with the knowledge and tools needed to navigate this rapidly evolving ecosystem. 

As scholarly publishing continues to shift, researchers are encountering a range of challenges, including the monopolization of research access by commercial publishers, rising costs and lack of institutional support for publication, and the emerging influence of AI. This webinar series offers a space for faculty to discuss these issues and explore strategies for more equitable approaches to publishing. 

One of the central discussions during the webinar focused on the dominance of major commercial publishers like Elsevier and Taylor & Francis. By controlling a significant portion of academic publishing, these companies have driven up costs for institutions and restricted researchers’ ability to freely disseminate their own work. In response, open access (OA) publishing has gained traction, allowing researchers to share their work with a wider audience at no cost to the reader. For scholars outside the global North, where access to traditional subscription-based journals is limited, OA often provides their only avenue for participating in the global scholarly conversation. 

Another major topic was the rise of fake and fraudulent journals. These exploitative publishers charge high fees for publication but offer little in terms of peer review or editorial support, often harming the reputations of researchers who publish with them. During the webinar, participants shared their encounters with these predatory journals and discussed strategies for identifying them, such as recognizing unsolicited invitations, lack of transparency around article processing charges (APCs), and promises of unusually quick review turnaround times.

Faculty from a variety of departments and disciplines attended and expressed interest in exploring more specific topics in future sessions, including:

• Securing institutional funding for open access publishing 

• Retaining ownership and distribution rights to one’s own work 

• Sharing research on platforms such as the BMCC OpenLab and CUNY Academic Works institutional repository 

• Navigating the increasing prominence of AI within the research and publishing ecosystem 

It’s important to note that this BMCC-specific series is designed to complement the excellent CUNY-wide scholarly publishing programming led by Jill Cirasella at the CUNY Graduate Center. Our series focuses on the unique needs of BMCC researchers, offering practical solutions and information resources to help them overcome the challenges they face in scholarly communication.

We welcome your input on the topics that matter most to you. Whether you’re navigating open access publishing, dealing with fake and predatory journals, or curious about AI’s role in research, we invite you to join us in these important discussions.