The Changing Landscape of Scholarly Publishing and Urban Planning

Publisher consolidation, open access, mega-journals, predatory publishing, and other innovations have changed the scholarly information landscape. This paper asks, what issues are raised for planning by the recent increase in numbers and types of journals? These trends have enabled a complex publishing landscape with proliferating journals, new kinds of peer review, and predatory journals that use fraudulent practices but can be hard to identify. Examining the case of literature reviews for evidence-based practice I argue article quality is more uneven, requiring additional assessment. Education can warn about pitfalls. A new generation Council of Planning Librarians could provide leadership.