Open Access Journal Publishing Research Articles

The Politics of Open-Access Publishing: <i>M/C Journal</i>, Public Intellectualism, and Academic Discourses of Legitimacy

This article investigates the discourses of academic legitimacy that surround the production, consumption, and accreditation of online scholarship. Using the web-based media and cultural studies journal (http://journal.media-culture.org.au) as a case study, it examines how online scholarly journals often position themselves as occupying a space between the academic and the popular and as having a functional advantage over print-based media in promoting a spirit of public intellectualism. The current research agenda of both government and academe prioritises academic research that is efficient, self-promoting, and relevant to the public. Yet, although the cost-effectiveness and public-intellectual focus of online scholarship speak to these research priorities, online journals such as M/C Journal have occupied, and continue to occupy, an unstable position in relation to the perceived academic legitimacy of their content. Although some online scholarly journals have achieved a limited form of recognition within a system of accreditation that still privileges print-based scholarship, I argue that this, nevertheless, points to the fact that traditional textual notions of legitimate academic work continue to pervade the research agenda of an academe that increasingly promotes flexible delivery of teaching and online research initiatives.

Diktuon: Digital Repositories and Theological Libraries

Theological Librarianship is an open access journal publishing peer-reviewed articles, as well as essays and reviews, on subjects at the intersection of librarianship and religious and theological studies that potentially impact libraries.

The Art of the Bibliographic Essay

Theological Librarianship is an open access journal publishing peer-reviewed articles, as well as essays and reviews, on subjects at the intersection of librarianship and religious and theological studies that potentially impact libraries.

A sustainable business model for Open-Access journal publishing: a proposed plan for High-Energy Physics

The High Energy Physics community over the last 15 years has achieved so-called full green Open Access through the wide dissemination of preprints via arXiv, a central subject repository managed by Cornell University. However, green Open Access does not alleviate the economic difficulties of libraries as they are still expected to offer access to versions of record of the peer-reviewed literature. For this reason the particle physics community is now addressing the issue of gold Open Access by converting a set of the existing core journals to Open Access. A Working Party has been established to bring together funding agencies, laboratories and libraries into a single consortium, called SCOAP3 (Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics). This consortium will engage with publishers to build a sustainable model for Open Access publishing. In this model, subscription fees from multiple institutions are replaced by contracts with publishers of Open Access journals, where the SCOAP3 consortium is a single financial partner.

Open access to open publish: National Library of Australia

Academic and scholarly journals are in trouble: small print runs, part-time editors, and dwindling funds are conspiring to crush them. But help is at hand: new trends in open access publishing support free, digital and open access to research literature, bringing writing and discourse to new and wider audiences.
 
 The National Library of Australia has created an Open Publish Web space, using the Open Journal Systems (OJS) digital publishing software to manage, host and deliver an online open access journal service.
 
 The Library's objective is to establish "new ways of collecting, sharing, recording, disseminating and preserving knowledge". We want "to ensure our relevance in a rapidly changing world, [by participating] in new online communities". For these reasons, the Library decided to engage in an open access journal publishing trial.
 
 This paper outlines the collaboration between the Library and the Association for the Study of Australian Literature to migrate their peer-reviewed journal, JASAL, to an online format.
 
 The successful outcome has informed the Library's decision to include Open Publish journals in the Library's collections.

Evaluating Means for Opportunities in Open Access Publishing at a Mid-Sized Private University, Summary of a Presentation by Edward Keane

Edward Keane, formerly Periodicals Librarian at Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus, examines how teaching faculty perceive the value of Open Access (OA) publishing. His main interest is whether or not faculty are receptive to publishing in OA journals. In spring 2005, a survey was administered to faculty at Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus. Keane also documents subsequent efforts to inform faculty about OA publishing. ...

Bipartisan Bill for Public Access to Research—Time for Action

Bipartisan Bill for Public Access to Research—Time for Action

Open access publishing: A developing country view

This paper presents the experience with open access (OA) publishing by researchers in an academic research institution (The University of the West Indies (UWI) St. Augustine Campus) in a developing country — Trinidad and Tobago. It describes the two parallel but complimentary paths for authors to enable open access, i.e. of publishing in open access journals and/or self–archiving. The benefits to researchers of free access to information, increased research impact and possible solution to the “serials crisis” are highlighted. It suggests that advocates of OA should consider all possible difficulties that researchers may have with OA, so that these could be ameliorated. To this end, it considers the UWI researchers’ knowledge of OA, their access to the scholarly literature, open access archives/repositories at the UWI and related issues of research and library funding, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), and infrastructure/Internet connectivity. It concludes that there are indeed obvious and well–documented benefits for developing country researchers. There are though some disincentives that make it difficult for researchers in developing countries to fully participate in the OA movement. Apart from author–side or “page” charges, the limited number of open access journals in many fields of study and inadequate and unreliable ICT infrastructure and Internet connectivity often limit access and publication in OA journals. Thus, because of technical, financial, human and infrastructural limitations, OA via self–archiving is sometimes difficult for developing country researchers. It concludes that much more should be done to ensure full participation in the open access knowledge community by developing country researchers, including direct technical assistance in implementing institutional repositories (IRs) and more financial assistance and support from international agencies to build the necessary human resource capabilities.

Open access journal publishing: the views of some of the world's senior authors

PurposeThe main aims of the survey were to determine: the volume of open access (OA) publishing; what the attitudes of authors to publishing in OA journals were; and what authors felt were the implications of OA publishing.Design/methodology/approachThe questionnaire survey was administered on behalf of Ciber by NOP and the sample derived from mailing lists supplied by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI®). Nearly, 4,000 authors responded.FindingsThe detailed results of a major survey of the views and experiences of nearly 4,000 senior authors in regard to OA publishing. A number of statistical analyses were employed to drill down into the data to obtain an understanding of the figures. Views were divided sharply along subject and geographical lines, demonstrating the need to survey large and robust samples of authors.Research limitations/implicationsA snapshot study which while providing robust data requires a follow‐up study to monitor opinion shifts in this fast‐changing area.Practical implicationsHighlights the knowledge gap that exists between authors and publishers.Originality/valueOne of the biggest, if not the biggest, author survey conducted into scholarly publishing and OA publishing.

Paying to Free Science: Costs of Publication as Costs of Research

Many proponents of open access to journal articles online view costs of publication as an essential yet minor component of the cost of conducting research in the life sciences. Author-side charges for publication in open-access journals in those fields should, therefore, be paid principally by the agencies and foundations that fund research. Recent analyses of the potential cost-to-institution of a widespread transition away from purchasing subscriptions to scholarly journals and towards paying open-access publication fees on behalf of affiliated faculty must be amended to reflect the reality that third-party funding agencies already pay the bulk of such fees in the life sciences, and will likely continue to do so.

Paying to Free Science: Costs of Publication as Costs of Research

Many proponents of open access to journal articles online view costs of publication as an essential yet minor component of the cost of conducting research in the life sciences. Author-side charges for publication in open-access journals in those fields should, therefore, be paid principally by the agencies and foundations that fund research. Recent analyses of the potential cost-to-institution of a widespread transition away from purchasing subscriptions to scholarly journals and towards paying open-access publication fees on behalf of affiliated faculty must be amended to reflect the reality that third-party funding agencies already pay the bulk of such fees in the life sciences, and will likely continue to do so.