Predatory Practices in the Context of Integrity and Quality of Scientific Publications

Ursula Ulrych

Ursula Ulrych studied microbiology and library and information science (postgraduate course), both at the University of Vienna, and has been deputy head of the University Library at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna since December 2023. Prior to that, after working for a biotech company, she spent almost 10 years in research support services and research evaluation at the University Library in Vienna. In addition, she served as coordinator of the Austria-wide project Austrian Transition to Open Access Two (AT2OA²) from 2023 to 2024 and was an active community member in the Predatory Publishing sub-project. In this context, she gained valuable experience in the field of scientific communication, with a focus on the complex upheavals in publishing and the phenomenon of the development of fraudulent practices. The collaboration of this community on the topic of predatory publishing has been successfully continued beyond the end of the project. Under the new name wissKomm – Wissen, Orientierung, Praxis (knowledge, orientation, practice), the newly formed group has been actively presenting itself since the beginning of 2025 with numerous lectures and workshops at scientific events in German-speaking countries.

Karoline Feyertag

Karoline Feyertag is an open access and open science coordinator at the Research Support Service of the University of Klagenfurt since 2022. She was also part of the AT2OA² project and is part of the wissKomm Community of Practice. Prior to that, she worked at the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna at the Research Support Unit and was involved in setting up the open access university press mdwPress. She holds a PhD in philosophy, was a research associate in a PEEK-FWF project from 2014-17 and also taught as an external lecturer in philosophy and gender studies.

Irma Klerings

Irma Klerings ist als Informationsspezialistin am Department für Evidenzbasierte Medizin und Evaluation der Universität für Weiterbildung Krems tätig. In diesem Rahmen beschäftigt sie sich mit den Methoden der systematischen Literaturrecherche sowie der Vermittlung der Grundlagen wissenschaftlichen Arbeitens und war ebenfalls Teil des Projekts AT2OA². Sie studierte Europäische Medienkultur in Deutschland und Frankreich und ist ausgebildete wissenschaftliche Dokumentarin.