Publication lag and early view effects in information science journals
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-12-2016-0200 |
| Published date | 20 March 2017 |
| Date | 20 March 2017 |
| Pages | 118-130 |
| Author | Umut Al,Irem Soydal |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management |
Publication lag and early
view effects in information
science journals
Umut Al and Irem Soydal
Department of Information Management, Faculty of Letters,
Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey
Abstract
Purpose –A major problem in today’s scholarly publishing process is the long tails for the assignment of
volume and issue numbers for approved articles. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to
which information science journals offer early view features and the effects of these features.
Design/methodology/approach –The study addresses three basic questions: Do the articles approved for
publication in information science journals appear in the online platforms of these journals before the
assignment of volume and issue numbers? How long do the articles wait in the online platforms before they
get the volume and issue numbers? Is there a statistically significant relationship between the online
accessing numbers of the articles before they are published and bibliometric indicators?
Findings –More than half of the information science journals complete the editorial process in reasonable
durations and share new articles with their readers before publishing them. In some journals, there are articles
that wait for more than a year to be assigned volume and issue numbers after the completion of the editorial
process. There are statistically significant differences, in terms of both their impact factor and immediacy
index values, between the journals that offer early view features and those that do not. Both the impact factor
and the immediacy index values of the journals that provide early view are higher than the others.
Practical implications –Adopting the early view policy may significantly help increase the impact factor
and immediacy index values of the journals, as well as the visibility of their contents
Originality/value –The answers to this study’s research questions offer a new perspective to overcome the
challenges in the processes through which scientific products meet with their users.
Keywords Scholarly communication, Editorial process, Information science, Bibliometric indicators,
Early view articles, Peer-review process
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The scholarlypublishing phenomenon has been shapedover time and has been influenced by
many different factors. Until recently, scholarly publishing was limited to the conditions of
print, whereas today it is highly influenced by the advantages of electronic media.
For instance,the quick and easy sharing and exchangingof information with colleaguesusing
computers and the internet has changed and accelerated the scholarly communication
processes.As vital scholarly communicationtools, journals developedonline systems through
which applications can be submitted, the peer-review processes can be managed, and the
author-editor-reviewer communication can be realized through a single interface. Apart from
these, some journals use the electronic systems to gain temporal flexibility and publish their
issues earlier. It is also known that there are some journals that share the articles without
assigningthem any volume and issue numbers.Although the names can varyamong journals
or databases[1] (such as “early view,”“articles in press, ”etc.), the objective is to make visible
the content for which the editorial processes are completed. Under the circumstances of
contemporary scholarly communication, extending the duration of the visibility of content is
extremely important and without doubt, it gets positive reactions from different actors (such
as users, authors, etc.) that are involved in this communication process.
Aslib Journal of Information
Management
Vol. 69 No. 2, 2017
pp. 118-130
© Emerald PublishingLimited
2050-3806
DOI 10.1108/AJIM-12-2016-0200
Received 8 December 2016
Revised 30 January 2017
Accepted 6 February 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2050-3806.htm
The authors express their gratitude to Dr Sinan Akıllıand Dr Umut Sezen for their feedback and
valuable suggestions.
118
AJIM
69,2
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