At our 2014 INANE conference in Portland, Maine, the group present for Jeffrey Beall’s informative presentation titled “Open Access or Good Editors Stand Out in a World of Predatory Publishers” agreed to launch a project to inform all readers of nursing journals about this important topic. We envisioned having an initial document published that lays out the basic issues involved; this document can be re-published or quoted (with adequate attribution) by any nursing journal editor in preparing an editorial that is tailored to a specific journal audience.

Without delay, and within exactly four weeks, a team of collaborators led by Sally Thorne developed an overview “anchor” document that has now been published in Nurse Author & Editor.  This position statement is titled “Predatory Publishing: What Editors Need to Know.”  It is available for free for any interested person; you only need to register on the site (at no cost) to have access.

With the publication of this document, it is now up to each of us as nursing journal editors to prepare and publish an editorial that addresses this issue.  Our major concern is to affirm the standards of editorial quality to which our journals adhere, and to inform readers, as potential authors and reviewers, of practices that have emerged in recent years that erode these standards of quality.  If you have questions or concerns about any aspect of this issue, or would like to have feedback on a draft of your message to your readers, please let us know!  You can email any of the team of collaborators, or use our INANE contact form to connect.

When your editorial is published, please send us the citation, including the URL or DOI if applicable.  You can send your citation information using the new form on our “Open Access Editorial Standards” page on this web site!

Thank you in advance for your participation in this important project!