Experiences Hosting
OA Journals at LiU E-Press
Linköping University Electronic Press
David Lawrence
www.ep.liu.se
[email protected]
Linköping University Electronic Press
– Began in 1996 under the initiative of Erik Sandewall
– Generally, the electronic publisher for the research
output of LiU (exjobb, theses, reports, articles, books…)
– Additionally: conference proceedings and OA journals
– First OA journal in 1997
– Initially, a connection with LiU was required
Development of Journal Hosting
– Support from OpenAccess.se to test a ”Journal
Publication Service”
• Allowed testing of JARSS editorial system for use with smaller,
OA journals
• Allowed a number of journals to start up and test an on-line
format
• Results indicated that there was interest amongst researchers
at Swedish universities (particularly in HSS) for journal hosting
services
– Since then we have started up and now host 5 OA
journals.
Development cont’d
– In 2008, decision was taken to offer hosting to journals
independent of any connection with LiU
– Later in 2008, decision also taken to offer this cost-free
– Early experience illustrated the importance of a formal
application procedure and review process
Conditions
• The journal must be of high quality and national or international in
scope;
• The journal must be open access, i.e. allowing completely free access
to the articles. A creative commons agreement (attribution, or
attribution non-commercial) will be used to clarify the licensing of
published articles;
• All articles must be externally peer-reviewed, i.e. the reviewers must
include people beyond those affiliated with the editorial committee of
the journal;
• The journal must show sufficient promise to publish at least two
issues per year, or equivalent, when continuous publishing is
envisaged, for at least five years;
• The journal must provide a business plan and an editorial plan
consistent with the above conditions.
Review Conditions
• the need for such a journal;
• the competence and reputation of the proposed editorial
staff;
• the quality of the proposed editorial board;
• the potential volume and source of material;
• the potential for continuing support;
• the distinctness from other journals in the area
Continuing Evaluation
– Needs to be a process formal review every
couple of years
Journals Hosted
Journal
Dates
Electronic Transactions on Artificial Intelligence (ETAI)
1997-2001
Student Journal of Health Sciences
1998-2001
Hygiea Internationalis
1999-
International Journal of Ageing and Later Life
2006-
Culture Unbound
2009-
Northern European Journal of Language Technology
2009-
European Journal for Research on the Education and
Learning of Adults
2009-
Services Offered
– Editorial support system (JARSS)
– Set up and host journal web pages (guidance but not
design)
– Publish publication-ready articles
– Register journal with appropriate indices
– DOIs/CrossRef
– Archiving of publishing agreements from authors
– Creative commons, multimedia…
Business Models
– No author fees, no advertising, no memberships, no
”pay-for” options
– Donated time
– Those with a society coupling get administrative help
through the society
– VR (once off)
Lessons Learned
– During approval process look carefully at conditions for
continuity/survival
– It is best (essential?) that more than just a research
group is involved in the editorial process
– Formal procedures for regular quality control
– Editorial support system??
– Flexibility
– Google visibility
Small journals and Current Research
Evaluation
– In the Nordic countries, the research output of
Universities and researchers are evaluated using either
”Norwegian” or ”ISI” models (or a combination)
– For ISI models, journals must be indexed by ISI
• Relatively poor coverage of HSS (although growing)
• For small journals, ISI’s evaluation procedure is not easy
– For Norwegian models, journals are ranked as level 1 or
2 (top 20% in field).
• Easy to be ranked; difficult to become level 2
In Summary
– There is a demand/role for University libraries to offer
hosting services for Open Access journals
– A serious evaluation procedure is essential along with
clear conditions for hosting
– Necessary to stress the amount of work involved in
running an international journal