On September 29, the Vilnius University Library organised a training workshop “Research Integrity in Academic Publishing,” which attracted considerable interest from the Vilnius University community. The workshop was led by Dr Barbara S. Lancho Barrantes, Senior Lecturer and research metrics researcher at the University of Brighton.
The workshop focused on current challenges related to academic publishing and research integrity, including questionable publishing practices, paper mills, citation manipulation, and other issues that may adversely affect the reliability of scholarly publications and the quality of scholarly communication. Together with the participants, the lecturer discussed why researchers may choose questionable publication venues, how to recognise potential warning signs, and why problematic practices can also occur in publication venues considered reputable.
A separate part of the workshop was devoted to retractions and the assessment of publication reliability. Dr Lancho Barrantes introduced the REAPPRAISED checklist, which provides a systematic approach to evaluating the reliability of publications and identifying potential risk indicators. She also presented ways in which artificial intelligence can be used to detect image manipulation, identify authorship-related issues, and assess other aspects of academic publishing.
The theoretical part of the workshop was complemented by practical activities and discussions. Participants analysed a specific research article and used a publication reliability checklist to identify signs that could raise concerns about its reliability. They actively engaged in discussions, shared their own experiences and cases encountered in practice, and explored possible approaches to evaluating them together with the lecturer. Participants also had the opportunity to try freely available tools that can help identify problematic publishing practices.
The workshop was organised by Vilnius University Library and funded by the Mokytis žaVU initiative.
Rusana Minkevičiūtė
2026-10-02