I first posted about this issue just over a year ago, A disturbing story on academic freedom and predatory publishing, and now it appears to have reached a conclusion, with the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) releasing a 30-page report on their findings. Report: Academic Freedom Breached at Thompson Rivers University
TL;DR:
(Ottawa – November 19, 2019) An investigation into the suspension of Dr. Derek Pyne by Thompson Rivers University (TRU) has concluded that the administration’s actions breached academic freedom.
But you really should read the whole thing. It's mostly about issues of academic freedom, but, because the catalyst appears to have been research about predatory publishing, there's a little bit of that in there too, including this quote from page 27 of the report:
"In an increasingly complex arena for publishing research, universities and academics grapple with assessing faculty members’ published research for tenure and promotion, and for various institutional benefits, including salary increases and research awards. Academic librarians have long provided their expertise in identifying scholarly resources and are now assisting researchers in identifying which constitute legitimate open access publishing and which do not. There is a clear need for universities to ensure the integrity of their academic decisions for tenure and promotion, in particular, by having policies that differentiate between legitimate and predatory publishing."
For anyone from the UofC reading this, please see this section on predatory journals and conferences in our libguide on Scholarly Communication.
At the time of this posting I couldn't find a response on the TRU website.
