The Publication Facts Label: Put your journal's integrity in black and white

The Publication Facts Label is like a rectangle divided into four quadrants. Quadrant one (upper left) is for this article. Quadrant 2 (upper right) is for other articles. Quadrant 3 (lower left) is for this journal. Quadrant 4 (lower right) is for other journals. The Publication Facts include peer-reviewers, reviewer ORCID ID's, author statements, articles accepted, indexing, and editorial board. There is a "learn more about these publication facts" icon at the lower right corner of the label. The last line at the bottom of the PFL is "The PFL is maintained by the Public Knowledge Project."

DOI: https://doi.org/10.59350/e8skz-2hj16

The Publication Facts Label (PFL), developed by the Public Knowledge Project at Simon Fraser University, seeks to help readers learn more about an article’s and journal’s adherence to the scholarly standards that set research apart from other sources of knowledge.

As more and more of the journals using OJS install the Publication Facts Label (PFL), it is bound to foster greater reader confidence in the care that goes into journal publishing. While it is but one of the current strategies for improving research integrity, the PFL immediately demonstrates to researchers and the public that the articles they are reading were published according to scholarly standards.

Like the Nutrition Facts label, from which the PFL borrows its design (US and Canadian version), the PFL recognizes a public right to know the facts behind what they are consuming. While Nutrition Facts was inspired by widespread distrust of food labelling during the 1970s and 1980s, the PFL is attuned to the pervasiveness of information skepticism today. And instead of a government label, the Public Knowledge Project is taking the lead in what will grow, with your help, into a scholarly publishing community initiative.

But then neither is the PFL just pasted on cans. It is wired into the publishing platform that feeds it live data. Yes, it can be hacked (what can’t), but not easily, given its data-security checks. The PFL will also inspire editors and authors to comply with publishing standards, as well as, for editors, keep an eye on days-to-publication and pursue indexing opportunities.

Over the last four years of its development, the PFL has been tested with journal users (from editors to researchers), as well as high school students. It has been piloted in 130 journals in two languages (public readers ranked it 4.8 out of 5); 3,783 readers responded to it in a Nature poll (72% favorable), and 99% of 72 scholarly publishing conference attendees gave it a thumbs up (OASPA 2014).

Journal editors all over the world are currently being asked to install the PFL in their journal (using OJS). The first 500+ journals have it in place and the number grows every day. The more widely it is used, of course, the better it serves as a trust marker. One of the most promising aspects of this is in terms of research quality that results from the use of the PFL. It provides researchers with a basis for citing the most relevant research from a broader range of journals on a global basis. This will, in turn, inspire and encourage a trend toward industry-wide adoption of the PFL. Utilization beyond OJS is currently under discussion among 28 industry players. All can see the benefits, which accrue from wider use, including a facilitation of research utilization of those journals using the PFL.

With the growing move to open access taking place in this distressing Age of Misinformation, researchers need to be crystal clear with the public, as well as with each other, about the standards to which any given research article adheres. What is at stake with this clarity, amid the global expansion of scholarly publishing (facilitated in part by OJS), is the recognition and, more importantly, the utilization of the resulting research for the benefit of all.

Learn more and get the pfl