Grant: CIHR Fellowship

Inequities exist in research publishing; researchers typically publish their research in journals to share the results of their research. The number of research publications and where they are published are important academic measures. Researchers who cannot afford to publish their research and whose research is not considered interesting and relevant by peer reviewers may not be valued highly in their institutions. Those with less publishing experience may make or be left with suboptimal journal choices for submitting their research. The process for selecting research for publication (i.e., peer review) is dominated by men in high income countries who tend to select articles from researchers of similar profiles for publication. As a result, published research is dominated by male researchers from high-income, English-speaking countries. Researchers in high-income countries tend to cite (i.e., reference in their research) domestic research more often, potentially incentivizing journals, whose reputations are formed on the basis of citations, to accept more research from such countries. This research aims to understand the inequities researchers face in publishing. A review of the literature followed by interviews with researchers will identify potential strategies for achieving equity in scholarly publishing. This research will also explore the use of preprint servers. Preprint servers allow research to be freely posted online, without undergoing peer review. They may provide a more equitable publishing option than scholarly journals. We will compare the characteristics of authors of preprints to those of journal publications. The trustworthiness of preprints, which have been included in some systematic reviews during the 2019 novel coronavirus pandemic, will additionally be compared to research published in scholarly journals. This research will provide evidence to facilitate improved equity in scholarly publishing and publishing-dependent academic evaluation.