Analysis of journals that did not meet selection criteria for inclusion in the National Library of Medicine collection but have manuscripts in PubMed Central

Abstract

In 2000, the National Center for Biotechnology Information at the National Library of Medicine (NLM) created PubMed Central (PMC) to serve as a free digital archive for biomedical and life sciences journal literature [1]. In 2005, researchers who received National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding were given the option to voluntarily submit their manuscripts to PMC. Three years later, in 2008, the NIH public access policy was implemented, which required that authors who publish articles based on NIH-funded research must submit the final, peer-reviewed manuscripts to PMC [2, 3]. This requirement ensures free public access to the results of federally funded research. NLM assumed that most NIH-funded research would have a health or life sciences focus and therefore would be published in journals that are in scope for the NLM collection. However, following the inception of this program, it soon became evident that some of the author manuscripts submitted through the NIH Manuscript Submission (NIHMS) system were published in journals that did not meet the guidelines for inclusion in the NLM collection, as defined by the Collection Development Manual of the National Library of Medicine, fourth edition (CDM) [4]. When manuscripts are submitted to PMC through the NIHMS, a record must exist in the NLM integrated library system (ILS) for the corresponding journal for the manuscript to be added to PMC. If no record exists, the cataloging section creates a new record for the journal title. Following record creation, selection and acquisition section staff review the title for possible selection. If a journal is selected, NLM will order it in print, if available, and edit the record in the catalog to indicate that it has been selected. A link is also included for electronic access, if available. If a journal does not meet NLM collection development criteria—due to subject, coverage, or an insufficient number of articles from which selectors can make a judgment—the title is not selected or, in the latter case, the decision may be deferred until the journal publishes more articles. NLM will preserve and make available the individual manuscript through PMC, whether or not the journal is selected for the collection. In October 2009, a project was undertaken to analyze the journals that were not selected for the NLM collection to determine if any notable patterns could be discerned among them. Through this project, the selection and acquisition section hoped to confirm that it was appropriate that NLM did not have the journals in question, identify titles that should be reviewed for the collection, develop holdings language to identify journals that did not meet NLM guidelines, and assemble overall data to help NLM plan and manage the new workflow.