Heather Morrison

Open Access Article Processing Charges: DOAJ Survey May 2014

As of May 2014, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) listed close to ten thousand fully open access, peer reviewed, scholarly journals. Most of these journals do not charge article processing charges (APCs). This article reports the results of a survey of the 2567 journals, or 26% of journals listed in DOAJ, that do have APCs based on a sample of 1432 of these journals. Results indicate a volatile sector that would make future APCs difficult to predict for budgeting purposes. DOAJ and publisher title lists often did not closely match. A number of journals were found on examination not to have APCs. A wide range of publication costs was found for every publisher type. The average (mean) APC of

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

964 contrasts with a mode of

Scholarly communication for librarians

0. At least 61% of publishers using APCs are commercial in nature, while many publishers are of unknown types. The vast majority of journals charging APCs (80%) were found to offer one or more variations on pricing, such as discounts for authors from mid to low income countries, differential pricing based on article type, institutional or society membership, and/or optional charges for extras such as English language editing services or fast track of articles. The complexity and volatility of this publishing landscape is discussed.

Professional Library & Information Associations Should Rise to the Challenge of Promoting Open Access and Lead by Example

The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is the world’s most authoritative list of scholarly, peer-reviewed, fully open access journals, and a “must” for libraries of all types. As of August 2007, DOAJ includes over 2,800 titles, over 10% of the world’s estimated 20-25,000 peer-reviewed scholarly journal titles. This is an impressive list; in terms of numbers of titles, DOAJ compares favorably with commercial journal packages. DOAJ is growing rapidly, at a rate of more than one title per calendar day. DOAJ’s highly functional and aesthetically pleasing interface features a number of search options, including a new search option for authors looking for open access or hybrid journals to publish in. DOAJ is freely available, and working towards economic sustainability through an optional membership / sponsorship program. This article examines the DOAJ membership program in some depth. Membership fees for libraries and library consortia are an incredible bargain. The membership fee for DOAJ’s 2,800 (and growing) title list is less than the average subscription cost for a single journal in any scientific discipline, and DOAJ represents significant staff time savings for libraries. The promotional benefits of DOAJ membership are important to position libraries for leadership in the internet age, and especially in the key emerging area of scholarly communications. DOAJ is a very popular service among libraries, with a strong reputation for quality; membership or sponsorship is likely to be highly beneficial to library service providers. As a free resource, DOAJ is strongly recommended for all libraries. DOAJ titles can be included in A-Z journal lists, library catalogues or websites, and subject-specific URLs can be added to subject guides or pathfinders.

E-LIS: the Open Archive for Library and information Science

Scholarship and scholarly communication Scholarly journals Publishing: the scholarly mission, and the multi-billion-dollar industry Libraries and librarians Authorsi?½ rights and intellectual property Open access The economics of scholarly communications in transition Emerging trends and formats Summary and conclusions.

Evidence based librarianship and open access

Focuses on an initiative of the Association of Research Library’s Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition in giving leadership for providing open access to scholarly information, determining this as the most effective means of advancing scholarly research. Addresses some of the reasons for opening up access to library literature, issues and challenges, and gives some examples of library associations that are already providing open access to their publications.

Open Access Publishing in Canada: Current and Future Library and University Press Supports

E-LIS is an open access archive for library and information science. With over 5,800 documents as of June 2007 (over 5,000 in February 2007 when the archive was investigated in-depth), E-LIS is the world’s largest archive for LIS. Over half the documents in ELIS are peer-reviewed. E-LIS is particularly strong in English and Spanish language documents, but supports over 22 languages. With this multilingual support and a global team of volunteer editors, E-LIS has significant diversity in content, an advantage over traditional, english-based LIS resources. Not surprising, this tool designed by and for librarians features robust and userfriendly search options. Lack of phrase searching, and pointing to a cross-archiving searching tool no longer supported when much better options are available, are identified as areas for improvement.

Open Access Journals Support in Canada

Evidence based practice, whether in librarianship or any other profession, depends on access to the evidence, and access to opportunities to share one’s own evidence. Open access (OA) is the perfect complement to evidence based librarianship. OA provides the optimum access to the evidence for librarians everwhere, and the optimum means of dissemination. This article compares examines access to the LIS literature in the print and electronic media, and the impact of open access.

The implications of usage statistics as an economic factor in scholarly communications

Canadian university libraries, Canadian university presses, and non-university scholarly presses at Canadian universities were surveyed in the first part of 2010 as to the level of their support of Open Access (OA) journal publishing. Respondents were asked about journal hosting services in their organization as well as their thoughts on internal and external support for open access publishing. Results showed that most of the organizations are hosting OA journals, largely between one and five in number, and many supply journal hosting services, including some technical support. Personnel resources are a notable factor in the ability to host journals. Most respondents engage in some sort of internal support for open access publishing and are open to options that they are presently not utilizing. They are particularly amenable to OA publishing support from outside of their organizations, especially assistance at a consortial level.

Open access : basics and benefits

Describes preliminary results of the pan-Canadian Open Access Journals Support in Canada survey of university libraries and presses conducted in spring 2010. The majority of respondents are involved in scholarly journal publishing, with more planning to get involved. There is strong trend towards preferential support for open access publishing. Responses to questions about support for a variety of open access models indicated that any model for OA transition would received some level of support from a majority of libraries. Presented by Heather Morrison & Brian Owen.