Publisher Transparency among Communications and Library and Information Science Journals: Analysis and Recommendations

Alexandre López-Borrull,Mari Vállez,Candela Ollé,Mario Pérez-Montoro

doi:10.3390/publications9040054

Alexandre López-Borrull, Mari Vállez + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/publications9040054

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Abstract

The principal goal of the research study is to analyze the transparency of a selection of academic journals based on an analysis model with 20 indicators grouped into 6 parameters. Given the evident interest in and commitment to transparency among quality academic journals and researchers’ difficulties in choosing journals that meet a set of criteria, we present indicators that may help researchers choose journals while also helping journals to consider what information from the editorial process to publish, or not, on their websites to attract authors in the highly competitive environment of today’s scholarly communication. To test the validity of the indicators, we analyze a small sample: the Spanish Communications and Library and Information Science journals listed in the Scimago Journal Rank. The results confirm that our analysis model is valid and can be extrapolated to other disciplines and journals.

Highlights

In recent years, the scholarly communication ecosystem has undergone a series of changes, often exacerbating aspects that have been in crisis since the late 20th century [1]
The methodology used enabled us to obtain interesting results. These results related to the transparent assessment of the proposed indicators, to the generation of a general transparency index for the best and worst journals in the selected corpus, to a distribution analysis of the journals, and to a study of the correlation between the level of transparency and other external quantitative indicators applicable to the journals in the corpus
Our results show that the analysis system developed for this study is effective in assessing the transparency of the proposed indicators

Summary

Introduction

The scholarly communication ecosystem has undergone a series of changes, often exacerbating aspects that have been in crisis since the late 20th century [1]. The European Commission defines open science as ‘a new approach to the scientific process based on cooperative work and new ways of disseminating knowledge, improving accessibility to and re-usability of research outputs by using digital technologies and new collaborative tools’ [3]. In such a fast-changing environment, choosing a journal in which to publish becomes more complex. The advances in technology have generated and consolidated open-science initiatives [11], including debate on the peer-review model [12] This is an advance in terms of scientific output (whether articles or research data) and a clear improvement in quality and transparency. These are just a few examples of data that are available to journals’

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Conclusion