Evolving landscape of scholarly journals in open access environment
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/GKMC-10-2018-0085 |
| Pages | 550-567 |
| Published date | 02 September 2019 |
| Date | 02 September 2019 |
| Author | Sumeer Gul,Sangita Gupta,Tariq Ahmad Shah,Nahida Tun Nisa,Shazia Manzoor,Rehana Rasool |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
Evolving landscape of scholarly
journals in open access
environment
Sumeer Gul
Department of Library and Information Science,
University of Kashmir, Srinagar, India
Sangita Gupta
Department of Library and Information Science, University of Jammu,
Jammu, India
Tariq Ahmad Shah
Central Library, Central University of Kashmir, Ganderbal, India
Nahida Tun Nisa
Department of Botany, Government College for Women, Srinagar, India
Shazia Manzoor
Department of Social Work, University of Kashmir,
Srinagar, India, and
Rehana Rasool
Department of Geography, Government Degree College Tral,
Pulwama, India
Abstract
Purpose –Open access journals(OAJs) offer immediate, free and unrestricted online accessto the scholarly
literature. The purpose of this study is to trace the status andcharacteristics of OAJs published across the
globe. Varioustrends that have evolved in OAJ markethave been studied.
Design/methodology/approach –Thestudyisbasedondatacollected from one of the largest OA
journal directory –Directory of Open Access Journals( DOAJ). The data were downloaded on 02 January
2018 and details of OAJs added to DOAJ till 31 December 2018 were harvested, codified and further
analyzed in SPSS software. A Microsoft-Excel template application –MAKESENS –developed by
Finnish Meteorological Institute (Finland) in 2002, was explored to perform Mann–Kendall Test and
Sen’s Slope Estimates.
Findings –A less score of OAJs offer access to their archivalcontent. An increasing trend is witnessed in
the OAJ publishing with Elsevier, Sciendo and BioMed Central (BMC) as the top publishers. Majority of
publishers are from high-incomezone countries, followed by upper-middle and lower-middle zone countries.
Majority of OA publishers are from the UK, Indonesia and Brazil. A lesser score of journals offer article
processing chargesand/or author submission charges. Majority of OAJs from high-and lower-middle-income
zone countries levy submission/processing charge to authors compared to OA journals from upper-middle-
and lower-income zone countries (p<0.01).OJS stays a prioritized platform for hosting OA journal content.
Portico and CLOCKSS/LOCKSSare mostly used for long-term preservationpurposes. Majority of OAJs from
high-income zone countries participate in digital arching initiatives compared to ones from other income
zones. Majority of the journalsadopt a peer review (double-blind peer review, blind peer review,peer review
and open peer review)process for validation of their scholarly content.The time lag between submission and
GKMC
68,6/7
550
Received13 October 2018
Revised26 January 2019
5 March2019
Accepted6 March 2019
GlobalKnowledge, Memory and
Communication
Vol.68 No. 6/7, 2019
pp. 550-567
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2514-9342
DOI 10.1108/GKMC-10-2018-0085
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2514-9342.htm
publication ranges from one to 53weeks, with majority of OAJs having a time lag of 11-20weeks. Creative
CommonsLicenses are mainly adopted by OAJs.
Research limitations/implications –As the study is based on the data offered by DOAJ, any gaps in
the DOAJ data will also get reflected in the study. Further, there mightbe other OAJs also that have yet to
show compliancewith DOAJ standards and get indexed withit.
Originality/value –The study tries to showcasethe current status and characteristics of OAJs.
Keywords Open access, Open access journals, Scholarly communication,
Open access journals-growth and development, Directory of open access journals, DOAJ
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The adoption of various web-based technologies removed majority of the obstacles
prevalent in accessing the scholarly communication (Harnad, 2001) and open access (OA)
was one such revolution that gave a more democratic voice to the scholarly world. OA
represents a noble initiative to offerfree, immediate online access to the scholarly literature.
Despite the challenge to populate content (Pinfield, 2015), OA literature is generally made
freely accessible on the public web by one of two means: publishingarticles in OA journals
(gold OA) or by archiving article in OA repository (green OA) (Lyons and Booth, 2011,
p. 108). It is accessible online to readers “[...] without financial, legal, or technical barriers
other than those inseparablefrom gaining access to the internet itself”(BOAI, 2002, para 03).
Readers are allowed to “read, download, copy, distribute, print, retrieve and link to the full
text”(BOAI, 2002, para 03). SPARC (2018) defines OA as “free, immediate, online
availability of research articles combined with the rights to use these articles fully in
the digital environment”with enormous benefits ranging from individual researcher to the
general public. O’Donnell(2014) calls it an exciting trend “[...]to anyone who wants to share
knowledge and enhance the visibilityof his or her ideas, and to anyone who wants to learn.”
(p. 5). To summarize OA briefly, Eve(2015, p. 718):
Refers to the removal of price and permission barriers to scholarly research. OA relies upon the
economic reconfigurations of dissemination on the internet and world wide web to allow readers
to access work without paying (the digital environment eradicates the cost-per-copy and instead
concentrates all costs in the cost to first copy).
Rohrer (2014) observes emergence of OA at a rapid rate as articles are freely available and
advocates that “if our work is of value to the world, then makingit freely available is in the
public interest”(p.1).
A veritable revolution in the scholarly publishing process was observed with the
emergence of OAJs in early 1990’s when a number of barriers prevalent in the scholarly
world were removed and a success story was canvased with their growing number with
every passing day (Björk et al., 2010;Cirasella, 2014). Academic and research institutionsall
across the globe have tested waterswith this open movement and have been able to expose
their research on more open andhighly accepted platforms. OAJs that lay an open platform
for open research have proved more beneficial for the scholarly community. From the
possibility of getting more read, OA has also increasedthe citability of the scholarly works.
As OA platform brought a great changein the scholarly world, it became important to track
their growth and development from time to time. The transition to OAJs seems to be
speeding up and evolving in to a variety of models (Laakso et al.,2011;Solomon, 2008).
Though scholarly journals have been disseminated across electronic networks from many
years but with the debut of OAJs there was a quantum leap in the quantity of scientific
Evolving
landscape of
scholarly
journals
551
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