scholarly journals Publishing at Any Cost? The Need for the Improvement of the Quality of Scholarly Publications

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 214
Author(s):  
Maria José Sá ◽  
Carlos Miguel Ferreira ◽  
Ana Isabel Santos ◽  
Sandro Serpa
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Critical Element ◽  
Academic Institutions ◽  
Scientific Publications ◽  
Scholarly Publications ◽  
Open Access Journals ◽  
Open Review ◽  
Different Levels

At a time of great dynamism among publishers of scientific publications, with the inevitability of Open Access and the ease of publishing online at low cost, it is possible to find publications with different levels of scientific respectability. In this context, the improvement of the quality of scholarly publications emerges as a critical element for publishers, authors and academic institutions, as well as for society in general. This opinion piece discusses Open Access journals with different levels of quality, focusing on the following quality-promoting measures: blacklists, author’s preparation, and institutional prevention. The analysis allows concluding that the open review will be one of the key elements in the process of clarification and promotion of the level of quality and consequent scientific respectability of each of the Journals, of the thousands currently existing, a number that is likely to increase.

Exploring Possibilities for Transforming Established Subscription-based Scientific Journals into Open Access Journals

2016 ◽  
Vol 55 (06) ◽  
pp. 481-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanie Kuballa ◽  
Mareike Schulze ◽  
Claudia Böhm ◽  
Olaf Gefeller ◽  
Jan Haaf ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Open Access Publishing ◽  
Scientific Publications ◽  
Open Access Journals ◽  
Important Approach ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
International Research Project

SummaryBackground: Based on today‘s information and communication technologies the open access paradigm has become an important approach for adequately communicating new scientific knowledge.Objectives: Summarizing the present situa -tion for journal transformation. Presenting criteria for adequate transformation as well as a specific approach for it. Describing our exemplary implementation of such a journal transformation.Methods: Studying the respective literature as well as discussing this topic in various discussion groups and meetings (primarily of editors and publishers, but also of authors and readers), with long term experience as editors and /or publishers of scientific publications as prerequisite.Results: There is a clear will, particularly of political and funding organizations, towards open access publishing. In spite of this, there is still a large amount of scientific knowl edge, being communicated through subscription-based journals. For successfully transforming such journals into open access, sixteen criteria for a goal-oriented, stepwise, sustainable, and fair transformation are suggested. The Tandem Model as transformation approach is introduced. Our exemplary implementation is done in the Trans-O-MIM project. It is exploring strategies, models and evaluation metrics for journal transforma tion. As instance the journal Methods of Information in Medicine will apply the Tandem Model from 2017 onwards.Conclusions: Within Trans-O-MIM we will reach at least nine of the sixteen criteria for adequate transformation. It was positive to implement Trans-O-MIM as international research project. After first steps for transforming Methods have successfully been made, challenges will remain, among others, in identifying appropriate incentives for open access publishing in order to support its transformation.

scholarly journals Assessing number and quality of urology open access journals: 2011 to 2018

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-62
Author(s):  
Saif Aldeen AlRyalat ◽  
Zeyad alessa ◽  
Mustafa Mansour ◽  
Mohammed Hamidi ◽  
Muhannad Obeidat ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Open Access Journals

scholarly journals How Do Travel Costs Shape Collaboration?

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (8) ◽  
pp. 3340-3360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Catalini ◽  
Christian Fons-Rosen ◽  
Patrick Gaulé
Keyword(s):  
Collaborative Research ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Scientific Publications ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Travel Costs ◽  
Local Environments ◽  
Development Teams ◽  
Specialized Equipment ◽  
Different Levels

We develop a simple theoretical framework for thinking about how geographic frictions, and in particular travel costs, shape scientists’ collaboration decisions and the types of projects that are developed locally versus over distance. We then take advantage of a quasi-experiment—the introduction of new routes by a low-cost airline—to test the predictions of the theory. Results show that travel costs constitute an important friction to collaboration: after a low-cost airline enters, the number of collaborations increases between 0.3 and 1.1 times, a result that is robust to multiple falsification tests and causal in nature. The reduction in geographic frictions is particularly beneficial for high-quality scientists that are otherwise embedded in worse local environments. Consistent with the theory, lower travel costs also endogenously change the types of projects scientists engage in at different levels of distance. After the shock, we observe an increase in higher-quality and novel projects, as well as projects that take advantage of complementary knowledge and skills between subfields, and that rely on specialized equipment. We test the generalizability of our findings from chemistry to a broader data set of scientific publications and to a different field where specialized equipment is less likely to be relevant, mathematics. Last, we discuss implications for the formation of collaborative research and development teams over distance. This paper was accepted by Toby Stuart, entrepreneurship and innovation.

scholarly journals The Open-Access Movement is Not Really about Open Access

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 589-597 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Beall
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Open Access ◽  
Research Misconduct ◽  
Freedom Of The Press ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Authentic Science ◽  
Scholarly Publications ◽  
Open Access Journals ◽  
The Press ◽  
Predatory Publishers

While the open-access (OA) movement purports to be about making scholarly content open-access, its true motives are much different. The OA movement is an anti-corporatist movement that wants to deny the freedom of the press to companies it disagrees with. The movement is also actively imposing onerous mandates on researchers, mandates that restrict individual freedom. To boost the open-access movement, its leaders sacrifice the academic futures of young scholars and those from developing countries, pressuring them to publish in lower-quality open-access journals. The open-access movement has fostered the creation of numerous predatory publishers and standalone journals, increasing the amount of research misconduct in scholarly publications and the amount of pseudo-science that is published as if it were authentic science.

scholarly journals The Open-Access Movement is Not Really about Open Access

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 589-597 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Beall
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Open Access ◽  
Research Misconduct ◽  
Freedom Of The Press ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Authentic Science ◽  
Scholarly Publications ◽  
Open Access Journals ◽  
The Press ◽  
Predatory Publishers

While the open-access (OA) movement purports to be about making scholarly content open-access, its true motives are much different. The OA movement is an anti-corporatist movement that wants to deny the freedom of the press to companies it disagrees with. The movement is also actively imposing onerous mandates on researchers, mandates that restrict individual freedom. To boost the open-access movement, its leaders sacrifice the academic futures of young scholars and those from developing countries, pressuring them to publish in lower-quality open-access journals. The open-access movement has fostered the creation of numerous predatory publishers and standalone journals, increasing the amount of research misconduct in scholarly publications and the amount of pseudo-science that is published as if it were authentic science.

Open Access to Scholarly Publications and Public Policies

2008 ◽  
pp. 284-293
Author(s):  
Jean-Philippe Rennard
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Economic Model ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Scientific Publications ◽  
Scholarly Journals ◽  
Sir Isaac Newton ◽  
Isaac Newton ◽  
The Third ◽  
Scholarly Publications

“If I have seen further it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.” The famous statement of Sir Isaac Newton demonstrates that the progress of science relies on the dissemination of discoveries and scientific knowledge. Even though scientific progress is not strictly cumulative (Kuhn, 1970) information sharing is the heart of this progress. Nowadays, scientific knowledge is mainly spread through scholarly journals, that is, highly specialized journals where quality controls and certifications are achieved through peer-review. The first section of this chapter will present the specificity of the current economic model of scientific publications. The second section will introduce to the open access movement and to its emerging economic model. The third section will show the growing implication of governments in that movement.

scholarly journals “Worth(less) papers” – are journal impact factor and number of citations suitable indicators to evaluate quality of scientists?

2018 ◽  
Vol XVI (2) ◽  
pp. 369-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Racz ◽  
Suzana Marković
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Impact Factor ◽  
Journal Impact Factor ◽  
Academic Publishing ◽  
Digital Repository ◽  
Open Access Journals ◽  
On Line ◽  
Number Of Citations ◽  
Journal Impact

Technology driven changings with consecutive increase in the on-line availability and accessibility of journals and papers rapidly changes patterns of academic communication and publishing. The dissemination of important research findings through the academic and scientific community begins with publication in peer-reviewed journals. Aim of this article is to identify, critically evaluate and integrate the findings of relevant, high-quality individual studies addressing the trends of enhancement of visibility and accessibility of academic publishing in digital era. The number of citations a paper receives is often used as a measure of its impact and by extension, of its quality. Many aberrations of the citation practices have been reported in the attempt to increase impact of someone’s paper through manipulation with self-citation, inter-citation and citation cartels. Authors revenues to legally extend visibility, awareness and accessibility of their research outputs with uprising in citation and amplifying measurable personal scientist impact has strongly been enhanced by on line communication tools like networking (LinkedIn, Research Gate, Academia.edu, Google Scholar), sharing (Facebook, Blogs, Twitter, Google Plus) media sharing (Slide Share), data sharing (Dryad Digital Repository, Mendeley database, PubMed, PubChem), code sharing, impact tracking. Publishing in Open Access journals. Many studies and review articles in last decade have examined whether open access articles receive more citations than equivalent subscription toll access) articles and most of them lead to conclusion that there might be high probability that open access articles have the open access citation advantage over generally equivalent payfor-access articles in many, if not most disciplines. But it is still questionable are those never cited papers indeed “Worth(less) papers” and should journal impact factor and number of citations be considered as only suitable indicators to evaluate quality of scientists? “Publish or perish” phrase usually used to describe the pressure in academia to rapidly and continually publish academic work to sustain or further one’s career can now in 21. Century be reformulate into “Publish, be cited and maybe will not Perish”.

Status and quality of open access journals in Scopus

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 155-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammadamin Erfanmanesh
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Subject Area ◽  
Health Profession ◽  
Average Quality ◽  
Scholarly Journals ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Open Access Journals

Purpose This study aims to provide an extensive overview of OA journals’ status and quality in 27 research areas based on all Scopus-indexed journals. It shows the volume of OA journals, proportion of publications in OA journals and the quality of these journals in comparison with subscription-based counterparts. Design/methodology/approach This research investigated 22,256 active peer-reviewed journals indexed by Scopus in 2015. Data were gathered using the Journal Metrics website. The current research adopted four indicators to compare the quality of OA and non-OA journals indexed in Scopus under each subject area, namely citedness rate, CiteScore, SNIP and SJR. Findings OA journals comprised approximately 17 per cent out of the total journals indexed by Scopus in 2015. The results revealed an uneven spread of OA journals across disciplines, ranged from 5.5 to 28.7 per cent. Studying the quality of journals as measured by CiteScore, SJR SNIP leads us to the finding that, in all research areas, except for health profession and nursing, non-OA journals attain statistically significant higher average quality than do OA journals. Originality/value Although OA publishing improves the visibility of scholarly journals, this increase is not always coupled with increase in journals’ impact and quality.

scholarly journals Positioning Open Access Journals in a LIS Journal Ranking

2012 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingfeng Xia
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Scholarly Communication ◽  
Journal Ranking ◽  
Library And Information Science ◽  
High Quality Research ◽  
H Index ◽  
Open Access Journals ◽  
Information Professionals

This research uses the h-index to rank the quality of library and information science journals between 2004 and 2008. Selected open access (OA) journals are included in the ranking to assess current OA development in support of scholarly communication. It is found that OA journals have gained momentum supporting high-quality research and publication, and some OA journals have been ranked as high as the best traditional print journals. The findings will help convince scholars to make more contributions to OA journal publications, and also encourage librarians and information professionals to make continuous efforts for library publishing.

A cohort study of how faculty in LIS schools perceive and engage with open-access publishing

2019 ◽  
pp. 016555151986548
Author(s):  
Wilhelm Peekhaus
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Open Access Journal ◽  
Open Access Publishing ◽  
Free Access ◽  
Research Journal ◽  
Open Access Journals ◽  
Library And Information Studies ◽  
Information Studies ◽  
Similar Survey

This article presents results from a survey of faculty in North American Library and Information Studies (LIS) schools about their attitudes towards and experience with open-access publishing. As a follow-up to a similar survey conducted in 2013, the article also outlines the differences in beliefs about and engagement with open access that have occurred between 2013 and 2018. Although faculty in LIS schools are proponents of free access to research, journal publication choices remain informed by traditional considerations such as prestige and impact factor. Engagement with open access has increased significantly, while perceptions of open access have remained relatively stable between 2013 and 2018. Nonetheless, those faculty who have published in an open-access journal or are more knowledgeable about open access tend to be more convinced about the quality of open-access publications and less apprehensive about open-access publishing than those who have no publishing experience with open-access journals or who are less knowledgeable about various open-access modalities. Willingness to comply with gold open-access mandates has increased significantly since 2013.

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