Study of the accessibility of a sample of scientific electronic journal publishing platforms. Changes from 2011 to 2016

Published date11 June 2018
Pages387-411
Date11 June 2018
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-04-2016-0107
AuthorCarolina Navarro-Molina,Juan-Miguel López-Gil,Rafael Aleixandre-Benavent,Juan-Carlos Valderrama-Zurián
Subject MatterLibrary & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Bibliometrics,Databases,Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet,Records management & preservation,Document management
Study of the accessibility of a
sample of scientific electronic
journal publishing platforms
Changes from 2011 to 2016
Carolina Navarro-Molina
Department of History of Science and Documentation,
Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
Juan-Miguel López-Gil
School of Engineering, University of the Basque Country,
Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
Rafael Aleixandre-Benavent
Unit of Social and Health Information, Ingenio (CSIC-UPV ),
Valencia, Spain, and
Juan-Carlos Valderrama-Zurián
Institute of Documentation and Information Technologies,
Catholic University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the degree of accessibility of a set of electronic journals
that are hosted on widely used online scientific journal publishing platforms and whose content quality
has already been certified. Two studies were performed, in which the accessibility of the selected platforms
was studied in 2011 and 2016.
Design/methodology/approach The research was performed on publishing platforms than hosted
more than 20 journals about human behaviour and factors that may influence it. The evaluation was carried
out following the methodology described by the Web Accessibility Initiative in their Website Accessibility
Conformance Evaluation Methodology.
Findings The results show that, in spite of an improvement in accessibility, all the analysed electronic
consultation platforms contain errors that could hinder their usersaccess to their content. The incidence of
errors found varies considerably among platforms. As the user interface of each platform analysed is common
to all the online scientific electronic journals it hosts, the results obtained are valid for all other journals hosted
on a given platform.
Research limitations/implications Obtained results were val id in the date and time the websites were
analysed. Changes mad e on the websites since then make that the results of an acc essibility analysis
would be different.
Practical implications Analysed platforms would require taking steps to ensure their accessibility.
Social implications Users with disabilities cannot use these platforms appropriately due to the
accessibility problems found. The lack of web accessibility also has implications regarding visibility of
published articles and common users.
Originality/value This work offers a systematic analysis that includes manual accessibilityevaluation,
which has not been perfo rmed in scientific article pu blishing platforms to the e xtent presented in this pape r.
Articles found in the lit erature perform automati c analyses, which lack the de pth of a manual one.
Besides, when manual a ccessibility analysis is performed, us ually the home page of a platform or journal
alone is considered.
Keywords Electronic journals, Web accessibility, Scientific online journals, Web analysis
Paper type Research paper
Online Information Review
Vol. 42 No. 3, 2018
pp. 387-411
© Emerald PublishingLimited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/OIR-04-2016-0107
Received 11 April 2016
Revised 19 September 2017
Accepted 12 October 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.htm
The work was supported by the National R+D+I of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of
the Spanish Government, Spain (CSO2015-65594-C2-2-R) and Basque Country Government (IT980-16).
387
Accessibility of
a sample of
scientific
journals
Introduction
The International Organization for Standardization has defined scientific journals as serial
publications that are about one or more specific subjects and contain general or scientific
and technical information (International Organization for Standardization, 1983).
This format has been gaining ground compared to other modes of communication
because it not only allows for the transmission of the mass of knowledge it embodies but
also has been used to validate the findings and knowledge disseminated through this
medium, as well as to evaluate research activity. This situation remained virtually
unchanged until the end of the twentieth century, when two phenomena converged at a
crossroads: the so-called information explosionand the emergence of the internet. Since
internet use became widespread, electronic journals have experienced spectacular growth, a
trend that continues today, driven by a strong demand for scientific information inside and
outside the academic community. According to statistics of the ISSN, the amount of web
publications grew from 13,278 in 2001 to 154,745 in 2014.
Web accessibility signifies the overcoming of all disabilities that hinder internet access.
This means that people with disabilities can use the web. When they can perceive, understand,
navigate, and interact with the web, they can contribute to the web (Henry et al., 2008).
All disabilities that affect web access are considered, including physical, sensory, and cognitive
disabilities. Web accessibility can improve the relationship between an organisation and all its
stakeholders, not only those with disabilities. One of the key principles of web accessibility is
designing websites and software that are flexible enough to meet the needs, preferences, and
circumstances of different users. Doing so could also enhance the relationship between
organisations and people who do not have disabilities but whose circumstanceshinder their web
access. These people include those using slow internet connections or older technologies, those
with changing abilities due to aging, those whoare not very literate or not fluent in the language,
and those who are new and infrequent web users. Therefore, web accessibility, under certain
conditions, may be a source of competitive advantage for businesses because many people
interacting with them may benefit from web accessibility even if only small percentages have
disabilities (De Andrés et al., 2009).
The performed study analysed the web accessibility of a set of online scientific journals.
These journals were hosted on widely used scientific online publishing platformswebsites,
and each platform used the same interface for all of the journals it hosted. The steps
described by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) in their Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines (WCAG)-EM web accessibility evaluation methodology (Velleman and
Abou-Zahra, 2016) were used to evaluate the websites of the publishing platforms.
Two analyses were performed, one in 2011 and another in 2016, to compare the accessibility
results. The results indicate that although all analysed electronic consultation platforms
show no errors in 11 out of 38 success criteria used to evaluate web accessibility, all of them
have errors that could hinder their usersaccess to the content on their sites. The problems
found and their impacts are displayed, and possible implications discussed.
The paper is structured as follows. The following section discusses the background of
the current study, focussing on web accessibility evaluation. Then, the web accessibility
evaluation performed, including the selected sample, evaluation methodology, and
results obtained, is presented. The discussion on the results obtained is presented next.
Finally, conclusions on the results obtained in the empirical study are outlined.
Background
The need to assess the quality of online scientific journals is a response to distinct
professional objectives that are affected by the level of quality. From the viewpoint of
journal editors, this quality factor is very important because it will influence the positioning
of the journal, its standing with regard to its competitors, and, to some extent, its reach
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OIR
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