Journals without Publishers: the landscape of scholar-published journals

Abstract

The global move towards an “Open Access” model for journal publishing brings a new set of challenges to all those involved in scholarly communication. Of concern here is the case of journals published by one or a group of scholars, independent of any legal person (i.e. publishing house, university department, association, etc.). The question of how those journals establish and manage their venture (e.g. handling cash-flows) in absence of a legal entity is indeed an interesting one. Whether it is for ISSN registration, establishing a bank account or applying for membership to a publisher association, a legal “parent” would indeed make things easier. This project aims to explore the different strategies used by scholars to overcome this obstacle (e.g. incorporating the journal itself). It is based on a set of over 320 journals indexed by the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), where the publisher is listed as an individual person or as the journal itself. At the moment, the landscape of these journals is described, identifying their disciplines, countries, publishing platforms/software and the extent of cash flows they handle. Future steps include preparing an online survey to editors of those journals to obtain a deeper insight on their experiences as “independent” entities.

Full text

Background:
•Democratizing access to vs.
democratizing production of
scientific literature
•There exist cases when Editors
would appreciate independence,
even from their own departments
•When the journal is indexed in
databases, its publisher is listed as
something like:
•Dr Kai Nonnenmacher
•Contemporary Aesthetics, Inc.
•ACSIJ Press
010 20 30 40 50 60
India
Turkey
USA
Italy
UK
Germany
Spain
Brazil
France
Iran
Canada
Russia
Countries with Most Independent Journals
Humanities
Medicine
Science
Social
Sciences
Independent Journals
Humanit…
Medicine
Science
Social
Sciences
All Journals In DOAJ
Journals without Publishers: the Landscape of Scholar-published Journals
ElHassan ElSabry
Science, Technology & Innovation Policy Program, GRIPS, Japan
Reasons for Cash
Flow
Independent
Journal
All Journals
in DOAJ
Article Submission/
Processing Fees
5% 19%
DOI-Assignment 10% 34%
Archiving Service 0% 18%
Plagiarism Checker 10% 31%
XML-formatting 2% 11%
Editorial Assistance ?? ??
Editing Services ?? ??
Publisher Society
Memberships
?? ??
Donations ?? ??
Webhosting/design ?? ??
Expected Outcomes:
•Understand strategies used
by editors to overcome
challenges of independence
•Develop a guide for
establishing independent
journals
Methodology and Research Agenda:
•Identify independent journals in DOAJ
(329 journals)
•Determine potential cash-flow channels
•Describe journals using data from DOAJ
and Journal websites
•Send out a questionnaire to journal
editors to better comprehend their
experience