Newsletters for Networks

Abstract

In the previous installment of this column, Donnice Cochenour wrote about Project Muse, Johns Hopkins University Press's project to provide electronic access to its journals. This column will explore OCLC's collaboration with publishers who are making traditional print publications available electronically. Serials Review interviewed Andrea Keyhani, Manager of Electronic Publishing at OCLC, about traditional print publishers' interests in electronic distribution of journals, OCLC's solution to publishers' migration to electronic distribution, enhancements to their Guidon software, and libraries' costs and archive concerns.     

Open Access Mandates and Policies: The Basics

Abstract

Universities can afford to subscribe to only a small percentage of available scholarly journals. Consequently, researchers do not have access to all articles in journals pertinent to their fields of study. The Open Access (OA) movement began in response to wanting to find a solution to this “serials crisis” and the availability of the Internet to disseminate scholarly research in new and innovative ways to a larger, worldwide audience. OA mandates are policies adopted by research institutions, universities, or funders that require researchers to provide free, unrestricted access to their published research by publishing in OA journals, depositing their articles in an OA repository or both. This edition of “In Lay Terms” provides basic information about OA mandates and policies, gives an overview of university and funder OA mandates, discusses geographic differences in policies and compliance rates, and reviews United States federal funding agencies’ OA policies and Plan S.     

Migration to electronic distribution through OCLC'S electronic journals online

In the previous installment of this column, Donnice Cochenour wrote about Project Muse, Johns Hopkins University Press's project to provide electronic access to its journals. This column will explore OCLC's collaboration with publishers who are making traditional print publications available electronically. Serials Review interviewed Andrea Keyhani, Manager of Electronic Publishing at OCLC, about traditional print publishers' interests in electronic distribution of journals, OCLC's solution to publishers' migration to electronic distribution, enhancements to their Guidon software, and libraries' costs and archive concerns.     

Managing Perpetual Access

ABSTRACT

Libraries are committed to long-term access to the scholarly record in published journals. The transition from print to online format has presented numerous challenges for libraries. While many publishers provide some form of post-cancellation or perpetual access to subscribed journals, libraries sometimes find it difficult to ensure that access is available to users. Language regarding perpetual access can be vague in the license agreements libraries sign with publishers. Even when perpetual access is available, libraries may lack the staff, tools, or workflows needed to review and confirm access. Examples of how libraries have addressed these challenges are provided.     

Distributing Journals to the World

Abstract

In 2001, a number of initiatives began for distributing research journals to parts of the world where they are otherwise not accessible. This “Balance Point” reports on two publishers whose journals are now more broadly available in developing nations. HighWire Press offers both a free back issue archive and a developing countries initiative. Blackwell Publishing is working with a Russian consortium to make journals available to Russian universities and with nongovernmental organizations to provide free or nearly free access to biomedical journals in a number of developing nations. Serials Review 2002; 28:113–115.     

Journal Access Initiatives: Where Are They? Why the World Health Organization? and What Is HINARI?

Abstract

The move from print to online journal publishing has allowed the proliferation of journal access programs aimed at poor countries. These programs offer access to online journals on very favorable terms to developing country institutions and readers and are based on the premise that developing world scientists can contribute significantly to ameliorating the conditions of life in their countries. The authors give a brief overview of the environment in which these programs emerged, discuss different orientations of the major programs, examine the case of the Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative (HINARI), consider why the World Health Organization (WHO) runs a journal access program for developing countries, and conclude with the accomplishments of HINARI.     

Constructing an Accounting Journal Website

Abstract

To increase the effectiveness and efficiency of searches for information, accounting students, researchers, practitioners, and regulators could benefit from a Website devoted to the electronic access to journals. The site described here addresses such a need in the business discipline of accounting. On the site, the titles of over 470 journals are listed and categorized by topical areas within accounting. Then, within each accounting category, the journals are grouped according to their Internet accessibility. To provide the user with quick access to the various journals, the site provides links to the homepages of the various journals. Serials Review 2002; 28:201–205.     

Electronic journals and the paradigm shift: 1995 Spring forum of the Canadian Serials Industry Systems Advisory Committee

Abstract

Since 2006, Research Online, the University of Wollongong's open access institutional repository has utilised Bepress' Digital Commons software to make available published research outputs and digital theses. This article discusses the outcomes of recent academic demand for its use as a publishing tool of university journals and conference proceedings. The Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice is provided as an example. Digital Commons includes the editorial management software, EdiKit, which assists in managing submissions, editorial functions, and peer review. Also considered are changes to scholarly communication patterns arising out of the new open access, electronic only, publication regimes.     

Rock is a Way of Life: The World of Rock ‘n’ Roll Fanzines and Fandom

Abstract

While advantages of electronic publications are obvious and far reaching, most electronic journals are still published also in print since libraries do not acquire electronic journals but only access them through licenses. Libraries with substantial electronic publications, however, no longer “compile” collections in a traditional sense. One consequence of electronic only access is that the permanent availability of information that implicitly used to be found in print collections is no longer guaranteed. Digital publishing dramatically alters both the roles of libraries and publishers in preserving records of science. This article discusses the contribution of national libraries, particularly the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB; National Library of the Netherlands), to cooperate with publishers to secure the permanent archiving of electronic publications.     

Open Dialog: SciELO’s Approach to Open Access Publishing

Abstract

For over 20 years, Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) has been engaged in an ambitious program of open access journal publishing. In Brazil and 15 other countries, society journals and other publications rely on SciELO for online publishing infrastructure and a platform that gives visibility to a global audience. SciELO’s network of national level collections has expanded to 16 countries and provides an alternative model to approaches centered around commercial publishers or new open access journals.     

Measuring Usage: A Comprehensive Analysis of a Social Work Journal Collection

Abstract

This study examines what can be learned about a library’s electronic social work journal collection from usage statistics, survey data, faculty publications, and an examination of open access (OA) availability. A collections analysis was completed using data from two sources: a custom report by 1Science and results of a faculty survey on top journals for teaching. After creating a list of journals important to social work, top journals were identified by article downloads, faculty-authored publications, and references to faculty-authored papers. A publications analysis using faculty websites and author searches in Web of Science was also completed, to provide local, contextual data. SHERPA/RoMEO was used to determine the journals’ OA level and archiving policy. Library coverage for the journals was also included in the analysis. Results show that the McGill University Library has access to almost all of the journals identified as important to social work. Nearly one-third of publications authored by the McGill University School of Social Work since 2006 are OA, and more than half of the faculty in the school have at least one article published in an OA journal. While this is a good start for librarians who want to help faculty and students understand OA publishing and access, there is room for outreach in this area. While these results will aid librarians supporting faculty, students, and practitioners in the field of social work, a secondary aim of the study is to demonstrate a method that can be used by librarians undertaking similar analyses in other fields.     

The Standards Mantra

Abstract

The Essential Electronic Agricultural Library (TEEAL) and Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture (AGORA) are programs that will provide low-income countries with access to agricultural journal literature that advances their agricultural research and education objectives. Developed by Cornell University’s Mann Library and launched in 1999, TEEAL is a self-contained agricultural research library with full-text articles and graphics of 140 major journals related to agriculture from 1993 through 2003, stored and indexed on over 400 CD-ROMs. In mid-2005, most of the collection also became available for use over local area networks. Launched in October 2003, AGORA is an Internet-based journal delivery system led by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), with Mann Library as a principal partner. AGORA offers almost 800 journals from twenty-seven international publishers to 113 low-income countries and territories for free or a nominal fee.     

Coup de Grâce for a Tough Old Bull: “Statistically Significant” Expires

ABSTRACT

Many controversies in statistics are due primarily or solely to poor quality control in journals, bad statistical textbooks, bad teaching, unclear writing, and lack of knowledge of the historical literature. One way to improve the practice of statistics and resolve these issues is to do what initiators of the 2016 ASA statement did: take one issue at a time, have extensive discussions about the issue among statisticians of diverse backgrounds and perspectives and eventually develop and publish a broadly supported consensus on that issue. Upon completion of this task, we then move on to deal with another core issue in the same way. We propose as the next project a process that might lead quickly to a strong consensus that the term “statistically significant” and all its cognates and symbolic adjuncts be disallowed in the scientific literature except where focus is on the history of statistics and its philosophies and methodologies. Calculation and presentation of accurate p-values will often remain highly desirable though not obligatory. Supplementary materials for this article are available online in the form of an appendix listing the names and institutions of 48 other statisticians and scientists who endorse the principal propositions put forward here.     

Government Publications

Abstract

To determine whether health sciences faculty are sufficiently knowledgeable about copyright, fair use, and related precepts in their use of materials for teaching and research purposes, librarians at two comparable institutions, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA), conducted a Web survey regarding copyright knowledge among their respective faculty. Responses were similar from both institutions despite the fact that UTHSCSA faculty had access to a more coordinated copyright education effort. Most respondents self-reported at least a limited familiarity with copyright law and fair use.     

The 5K Run Toolkit: A Quick,Painless, and Thoughtful Approach to Managing Print Journal Backruns

Abstract

Increasingly, academic libraries are choosing to discard or place in storage print journals that are now available online. The identification of these titles and related collection analysis activities are often time-intensive. The approach at the University of Saskatchewan Library was to develop an online toolkit that combined available data from disparate sources including the integrated library system, SFX link resolver, and OCLC's WorldCat and then present them in a collaborative open source environment. This paper demonstrates how the careful combination of existing data presented in a simple online format allowed subject specialists to make accurate print journal deselection decisions quickly and painlessly.