Abstract

The European Network for Academic Integrity’s (ENAI) Ethical Publishing and Dissemination working group has developed guidance targeting early career researchers (ECRs). Materials developed so far cover the responsibilities of different stakeholders in managing academic publishing and a checklist of characteristics that help to distinguish between reputable and disreputable journals and publishers.Although many types of guidance exist already in different forms, we found no guidance covering all the different publishing roles that is synchronised to provide a comprehensive complementary set. Therefore, we set out to fill that gap.Despite many existing checklists, the number of disreputable publishers and journals continues to increase, reflecting strong global demand for these services. Other threats come from hijacked journals, paper mills and authorship for sale. Raising awareness in ECRs will improve their understanding about the threats they face and their rights, so they can exercise their responsibilities as an author and make informed decisions on where and how to publish.In July 2023, the draft guidance notes and checklist were presented at a conference workshop. Participants were asked for feedback to help to validate and improve these resources. This paper will describe the processes followed by working group members to develop and validate these resources, which are available on the working group’s website.