Developing Open Access Journals: A Practical Guide

Citation

Kaden, B. (2009), "Developing Open Access Journals: A Practical Guide", Library Hi Tech, Vol. 27 No. 4, pp. 635-636. https://doi.org/10.1108/07378830911007745

Many open access (OA) journals find themselves stuck in a dilemma: within the scholarly community and on a political level there “…are strong ethical imperatives for making the scientific and scholarly literature freely available”. Interestingly, this correlates with the traditional image of an academic library, but as commercial journals have become too expensive, now such alternatives as OA journals rush into focus.

The comparatively inexpensive means of electronic publishing and distribution back this development. However, on the coin's flipside some kind of funding is needed. High‐quality and peer‐reviewed content still does not come at no cost and surely never will. Some journals try advertising, but such revenues seldom cover more than technical operating costs. Furthermore, not all disciplines may be equally attractive for potential advertisers. Some journals, e.g. the Journal of Medical Internet Research, make certain revenue from a membership model, which raises the question of whether there can be a renaissance of societies' journals. But again, such ways probably rather work for few than for most. Normally journals need external funding from scientific institutions, universities and foundations, and in most cases they largely rely on volunteer efforts. Being a founder of an OA journal myself, I can appraise that especially in the beginning of such a project there is a high need for improvisation and a somehow even bigger one for persistence, which pays mainly in an upright learning curve.

David Solomon, professor at Michigan State University's College of Human Medicine and founder and co‐editor of Medical Education Online (MEO), probably would agree. In Developing Open Access Journals he intends to provide insight, help and best‐practice experience for those who are planning to start an OA‐journal. Indeed, the ten chapters raise many practical issues to keep in mind while planning, shaping and maintaining an OA journal.

In addition to discussion of generating income, other topics range from how to determine a name and obtain an ISSN, formulate policies, organise the hosting and coordinate review processes to ensure long‐term availability and archiving. There is a brief theoretical account of the history of scholarly journals to explain how the phenomenon of OA journals arose and in which traditions they stand. This is followed by the portrayal of some examples of successful OA journals. It is mainly posed as a more informal best practice report. This style makes the descriptions a little livelier, but sometimes – as Solomon points out himself – limits the angle. When you have some experience in journal publishing, a number of points mentioned will appear familiar, e.g. the issue of how to stimulate book reviewers to send in reviews on time (or even at all). But even if you are not new to journal publishing, you will become more sensitive to certain aspects of the process.

Unfortunately, Solomon's remarks regarding the dissemination of the journal's content do not include a field that has become significant of late: Web 2.0 with its blogs, social and professional networking pages and twitter‐like feeds. The establishment of open and dynamic communication structures for scholars on the web, which go far beyond the traditional mailing list, will surely become a central element of next generation OA journals. Here, however, Solomon refers to XML only as a matter of archiving. Next generation journals will see it as a central aspect of distributing content, e.g. via RSS.

If you are experienced in running OA journal, this book will be largely redundant, but it may also be a welcome refresher. If you are new to OA journal editing and publishing, and going to take part in such a project, this book serves quite well as a good and easy‐to‐read starter. If you are looking for deeper and more theoretical insight into the OA phenomenon, you may refer to the reference list given in the book, or better to the comprehensive bibliography on the corresponding website: www.developing‐oa‐journals.org. First of all, pick John Willinsky's The Access Principle.