Summary

This workshop will introduce attendees to the various ways that social work researchers can disseminate their work via online repositories to increase access to international audiences. Social work scholars primarily publish their research in peer-reviewed journals, though these journals have limitations. Traditional journals have restricted access, limiting dissemination both to practicing social workers and to scholars at universities without access to expensive journals. High quality open access journals typically have hefty publishing fees which are cost-prohibitive to most social work scholars. Publishing preprints and postprints can not only assist with rapidly releasing findings but can also help increase the global visibility of research findings and make research accessible to researchers who cannot legally circumvent paywalls. We saw a rise of global interest in preprints during the COVID-19 pandemic, as much of our early scientific knowledge about COVID-19 was first distributed via preprints.This workshop will first introduce the benefits of publishing preprints and postprints, and then discuss scholars' concerns about publishing preprints and postprints, such as worries about publishing ethics, potential scooping, or publishing prior to peer review. Next, attendees will learn about various types of preprint and postprint digital repositories, such as SocArXiv, the international social science archive, and PsyArXiv, the international psychology archive, other institutional archives, as well as for-profit sites, such as ResearchGate and Academia, which have experienced legal challenges. Attendees will learn about Sherpa Romeo, a site which aggregates journal policies into a simple search engine so researchers can be sure they are complying with journal guidelines. Finally, attendees will be guided through all the steps of uploading a preprint onto SocArXiv. Attendees are encouraged to bring a device and a preprint of their own research with them, or they can simply follow along with the demonstration. Attendees are free to ask questions throughout the workshop.

Keywords (separate with commas)

digital repositories, social work research, preprints, postprints, journals, dissemination, global access, peer-review, research ethics