Experiences Hosting OA Journals at LiU E-Press Linköping University Electronic Press David Lawrence [email protected].

Experiences Hosting OA Journals at LiU E-Press

Linköping University Electronic PressDavid [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 DatesElectronic 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