Scholarly Journal Publishing Research Articles

Under Siege : Journal Publishing in the 1990s

Budget cutbacks are the theme of the '90s, and all aspects of advanced education are under intense pressure from severely reduced federal and provincial funding. The realm of scholarly communication is no exception. At a time of rising production costs, reduced postal subsidies, and subscription cancellations from under-funded university libraries, publishers of scholarly journals are now faced with the outright elimination of funding sources such as the Scientific Publication Grants Program of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). According to NSERC, the support of scientific journals is a "non-core program" and is therefore being terminated to allow more funding to be directed to research grants. It is difficult to understand how the dissemination of knowledge came to be defined as a non-core program. The goal of ensuring adequate funds for the direct costs of conducting research is certainly laudable. Nevertheless, the loss, through inadequate funding, of scholarly journals as a major forum for scientists to communicate the results of their work has serious consequences for the entire scientific endeavour. There is little point in funding research that will remain unknown to the broader academic community and to Canadian tax-payers who support that community. Such a move could easily result in the research being available only to a privileged few (relatively speaking) through informal networks of communication such as the Internet. ... The move to on-line publishing may somewhat ease the budgetary pressures on journal support programs and university libraries as more and more new journals are offered directly in the electronic media rather than in print. ... Until such time as the print journal has disappeared, publishers will continue to seek ways to make the production process as efficient and cost-effective as possible, while maintaining the quality and integrity of scholarly journals. ... Fiscally responsible journal management means maintaining subscriber rates that will cover the costs of production and distribution. But we need to look elsewhere to cover the myriad other costs associated with scholarly publishing. ...

Monitoring Scholarly Journal Publication in Political Science: The Role of the APSR

Monitoring Scholarly Journal Publication in Political Science: The Role of the <i>APSR</i>

University libraries and pricing practices by publishers of scholarly journals

Scholarly journals exhibit significant variations in price. Part of this variation is attributable to costs of production and distribution, but noncost factors may also affect the pricing of journals. These factors include publisher type, country of origin, and the discipline of the journal. This study utilizes multiple regression analysis to evaluate publisher pricing practices for a random sample of 439 scholarly journals. Holding cost factors constant, it was determined that prices to U.S. academic libraries are significantly higher for journals in the physical science disciplines and for those from commercial publishers, especially European commercial publishers. The estimated European price differential is too large to be attributed entirely to the extra cost of shipping serials to U.S. libraries.

The Freedom of Information Act and Accountability in University Research

In general, information on government research grants is covered by FOIA only if it is in possession of a government agency. Increasingly, citizens and policy-makers look to science to help solve pressing national and international problems relating to such matters as health, environmental quality, and defense. It's no surprise, then, that federal government is primary funder of university research in United States.1 With federal money comes an interest in policy implications of research, and scientists are regularly asked to contribute to development of governmental policy. In recent years, however, several widely publicized cases of fraud have raised questions about accountability in research, especially federally funded research.2 For scientists, promotions and better jobs depend to a great extent on publications in scholarly journals. The pressure to produce high numbers of publications can tempt researchers to fabricate findings.3 Peer review of grant proposals and of manuscripts submitted to scholarly journals is of little help because peer review is designed to assess quality of a piece of research, not to uncover fraud.4 Fraud is most likely when scrutiny of research process is least.5 Many scienlists zealously guard their data and lab notebooks6; for most part, scientists are accountable only to other scientists. However, as Justice Brandeis once said, sunshine is best of disinfectants. If members of public (including journalists and scientists) had a greater right of access to information about federally funded research, fraud would be less likely. Increased openness leads to increased accountability. In addition to inhibiting fraud, a freer flow of information about science and technology might have other benefits. For example, many believe that increased scrutiny by press and public could help avert incidents such as accident at Three-Mile Island nuclear power plant7 and destruction of space shuttle Challenger.8 This article examines extent to which Freedom of Information Act,9 designed to increase accountability among public institutions, enables access to information about federally funded university research. The topic clear relevance to journalists who cover science or higher education. But it also relates to much broader debate about access to government information generally,10 as well as about control of science information.11 Scientists often are unwilling to communicate to public via news media.12 And when scientists do talk to reporters, they often attempt to exert tight control over nature of communication.13 Although journalists who cover science rarely take an adversarial stance toward their sources,14 journalists and scientists sometimes differ over access to information.15 In such cases, a reporter may turn to FOIA to try to obtain information that a scientist been unwilling to provide. Background United States citizens have no constitutional right of access to information about government-funded research. Although information-gathering been linked to ability to exercise First Amendment rights,16 Supreme Court has never intimated a First Amendment guarantee of a right of access to all sources of information within governmental control.17 In absence of a clear First Amendment right, court said that determining what kinds of information must be available to public is clearly a legislative task.18 Accordingly, public access to governmental information hinges on what former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once called the tug and pull of political forces in American Society.19 In 1966 those political forces produced FOIA, which created a strong legal presumption that information about federal activity should be available to public. A series of amendments in 1974 strengthened act, which been principal legal instrument used by citizens seeking access to information about federally funded university research. …

Procedures for Writers in the Field of Education: How to Make Publications More Consistently Accessible within Computerized Information Databases

Educators writing documents or articles for publication in professional and scholarly journals desire to have their writing read and cited. Today, as a part of achieving this end, publications need to be easily accessible through computerized searching (online and CD‐ROM) in databases such as ERIC. There are specific techniques for achieving this. The trend toward end‐users doing their own computerized information retrieval and the implications this has for educational writers are discussed, and five hints are given for writers in the field of education: 1) having a clear and unambiguous title, 2) providing a narrative abstract or annotation, 3) citing authors’ names in a consistent format, 4) selecting appropriate words for the title and abstract, and 5) furnishing an informative document title page.

COMMUNITY COLLEGE TENURE: TEACH OR RESEARCH?

This paper explores the purpose of the doctoral degree, as a research degree, in the community college. A dilemma occurs when a research degree is required in a community college environment in which teaching is the primary mission. Where does the emphasis occur: teaching or researching and publishing? Further examination reveals a contradiction in the hiring process under the tenure requirements both in the university and in the community college. Tenure contains implicit contradictions when applied to the hiring process and the provision of academic freedom for the classroom teacher, whose role is secondary to research publication. Suggestions are made for equal value placed on development of classroom materials and instructional innovation as well as scholarly journal publications. An additional suggestion for a Director of Faculty and Staff Development is proffered to provide for tapping the research skills of the Ph.D.s already hired. Such a position would provide a creative outlet for the individual...

SYNOPSIS JOURNALS AS SEEN BY THEIR AUTHORS

Synopsis journals have been suggested in recent years as a possible solution to some of the problems of scholarly journal publishing. In a synopsis journal, the conventional printed version contains a one‐or two‐page summary of the paper, possibly including one or two diagrams, tables or references. The full paper appears in microfiche or miniprint directly from the typescript, or it is archived and photocopies are made available on request. Typically, the full paper has the conventional layout of a scholarly paper with a short abstract at the start, but the synopsis as such does not appear in the full paper. (Miniprint is printing in reduced size, usually with four or nine typescript pages on one printed page. A magnifying glass is required to read it.)

Quantity and Impact of Scholarly Journal Publication in Canadian Faculties of Education

Le Current Index of Journals in Education (CIJE) fut utilisd des divers dcrits de chacun des 568 professeurs adjoints dans les facultds anglo-canadiennes de pddagogie. Le Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) servit i dvaluer pour chacun des professeurs-adjoints l'influence respective de tout article de portde intellectuelle, influence ddterminde par le nombre de citations. En fin de compte, les facultds furent classdes selon une moyenne calculde d'apr6s la frdquence et l'influence de leurs articles. Des statistiques furent dressdes pour sept universit6s de langue francaise. Toutefois, elles ne furent jamais publides, car on eut conscience que le CIJE, pour utiliser l'abrdviation anglaise, favorisait les publications d'expression anglaise aux ddpens des articles fran9ais, qui, de ce fait, n'obtenaient que peu d'attention. This study had two purposes. The first was to obtain approximations of the quantity and impact of scholarly journal publication among members of Canada's faculties of education. The second was to tentatively identify some Canadian faculties of education whose members might be particularly productive, and to provide two bases for making comparisons between faculties in terms of scholarly publishing. At present there are few, if any, indexes of the nature and degree of scholarly publishing among members of Canadian faculties of education. Such indexes could provide empirical data for normative questions such as Is there insufficient, adequate, or overmuch emphasis on scholarly publication among members of education faculties? Some might argue that promotion procedures or institutional expectations create excessive pressures to publish or perish and detract from other professional duties, such as teaching. Others may argue that there is less journal publication among members of education faculties than should be expected from institutions of higher learning. Before normative questions can be answered, answers to simpler questions are needed. What percentage of faculty are in fact publishing in scholarly journals? What is the average number of articles published by faculty members across Canada in the last seven years? What impact upon fellow scholars do members from various faculties make? Answers to these questions in the form of indexes might also provide a beginning for comparisons between faculties and a basis for subsequent analysis of possible reasons for the differences. Some administrators, faculty

Publishers, Libraries, and Costs of Journal Subscriptions in Times of Funding Retrenchment

A study funded by the National Science Foundation and carried out at the Indiana University Graduate Library School examined the economic interaction between libraries and publishers of scholarly and research journals for the period 1969-73. Drawing from the findings of the study, the validity of the fears of librarians of growth in the number of journals published and publishers' profits and the fears of publishers of unlimited photocopying in libraries are examined. The complex price structure of journal subscriptions, their increasing cost, and the problems these pose both to publishers and librarians are discussed. How libraries allocate their budgets is also examined, and problems requiring further investigation are identified.

The applicability of Editorial Processing Centres to UK publishing

Faced with rapidly rising production costs and slowly rising demand, publishers of scholarly journals, especially learned societies, must examine cheaper production methods and consider how to utilize advances in technology. However, most learned societies are to small too take advantage of new technologies because of the level of investment and the high volumes of throughput that are required. The concept of Editorial Processing Centres (EPCs) has been developed in the USA under the auspices of the National Science Foundation and is seen as being a means of reducing costs without eroding quality or increasing publication time. An EPC is a co‐operative venture whereby a number of societies combine to provide computer support for all the functions of journal production, including editorial, printing and management functions.

Up With Excellence

To the Editor.— In David Hendin's response (228:290, 1974) to A Spooky Proposal, he has mixed so many ideas—some unrelated to my thesis and others misconstruing it—that it is difficult to sort them all out. His statement I insinuated that 'authenticity, literacy, scholarship' are not compatible with readability cannot be supported by any reasonable interpretation of my text. Hendin, however, mistakenly equates jazzing it up with readability. He also conveniently omitted the fourth item in my series—the 'real' thing— which is central to my thesis regarding honesty in authorship. 1 I am opposed to the deception of having the name of one person appear in the by-line of a scientific article when it was actually written by another. I am certainly not, however, advocating physicians and scientists abdicate the responsibility of writing articles for publication in scholarly journals, since I believe only those who are capable of

The Modern Martyr

The proposition that all things, animate and inanimate, have a beginning, a development, and a conclusion has only partial validity in the opinion of scoffers when applied to the case of the martyr. We use this term to designate, in particular, the research scholar, but by extension apply the term, as fellow travelers on the via dolorosa> to the makers of text-books, and to authors of critical, expository, or controversial articles written for publication in nonpaying scholarly or professional journals. The critics of the modern martyr hesitatingly grant him a pathological beginning, willingly concede him a pitiable conclusion, but are reluctant to accord him much development. Perhaps he deserves the frowns of those who champion academic dilettantism, but then again perhaps he doesn't. He may often coordinate, as did the master dilettante of this century, Anatole France, the spirit of scholarship and the synthesis of the contemporary. Again, he may be nothing more than a Don Quixote of the footnote. But even so, he deserves admiration for his relatively gratuitous and disinterested pursuit of information in a commercialized civilization. His responsibility becomes all the more grave now that his coworker in the physical sciences has become the unwilling martyr of his discoveries. Some day the world may indeed cease entirely to be interested in what the superficially callow unwisely call useless information and may set its course only by the compass of practical utility. But our purpose in this paper is not to offer an apologia of scholarship or to indulge in jeremiads about the future of the world; it is to paint the miseries of the modern martyr and to invoke sympathetic admiration for his endurances, perseverances, and sacrifices.

German Historiography during the Second World War: A Bibliographical Survey

GRADUALLY scholarly contacts between nations, interrupted by the war, are being re-established. The retying of intellectual bonds not only means the resumption of the regular exchange of current periodicals and publications; it also necessitates an inquiry into the work done in other countries during the war years, when scholarly pursuits, insofar as they existed at all, were carried on in virtual isolation. Such an inquiry presents particular difficulties with regard to Germany. First of all, it is made difficult by external factors arising out of Germany's defeat. The publication of scholarly journals which, in countries like Italy and France, provides some guidance to the literature of the previous years, has barely been resumed in Germany. Some libraries were destroyed; most pf them, after having been removed to different parts of the country for protection against air attacks, have not yet been reassembled. Furthermore, the separation of Germany into four different zones complicates communication. Thus a systematic survey is hardly possible.' The difficulties arising out of these external circumstances are heightened by the fact that Germany has to a certain extent been separated from the outside world since the Nazis came to power. With German intellectual life bound in the strait jacket of Nazi ideology, the value of German scholarly production became increasingly dubious. Thus any attempt to assess the efforts of scholars in Germany during wartime must be more than a factual statement of accomplishments. It must be selective in analyzing the extent to which their writings can be considered to have remained relatively free from Nazi indoctrination and to have maintained the recognized standards of historical scholarship. How the war affected the impact of Nazi doctrines on German historical scholarship is therefore the first question to be discussed in this survey of the development of German historiography during the Second World War.