Annals of Library and Information Studies
Vol. 61, September 2014, pp. 199-202
Open access journals in library and information science: a study
Shamprasad M. Pujar
Deputy Librarian, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Gen Vaidya Marg, Goregaon (East), Mumbai-400 065,
E-mail: pujar@igidr.ac.in
Open access spurred by the Internet has brought in new vistas for dissemination of scholarly content in almost all the
disciplines. It has enabled agencies, publishers and individuals to distribute scholarly content online, free from licensing
restrictions and cost. Like other fields, the growth of open access has also benefited the field of library and information
science (LIS). In this paper an attempt has been made to assess the current status of open access journals in LIS covered in
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) based on various parameters.
Keywords: Open Access; DOAJ; Library and Information Science
Introduction also taken into consideration. Like in other fields, the
number of open access journals in the field of library
Open access has brought in new vistas for
and information science has steadily increased, which
dissemination of scholarly content. Today, world over
now accounts for 147 titles3. In this paper an attempt
scholarly content in various forms is distributed
has been made to study the status of these 147 LIS
online on the internet, free of charge and free from
journals to assess their continuity, licensing of
copyright and licensing restrictions by publishers,
content, language/s of publication, platform for
institutions and individuals. There has been a rapid
hosting, indexing of content by abstracting and
growth of scholarly journals, repositories, distributed
indexing journals, etc.
catalogues, preprint archives and others. According to
Morrison s report (June, 2014) on growth of open
Review of literature
access, the size of content in some of the initiatives
Open access (OA) movement gained momentum from
such as Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE)
Budapest Open Access Initiative in 2002
stands at 62 million items, Internet Archive 416
(http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org). It was
billion web pages, Electronic Journals library 45
followed by series of studies by promoters of open
thousand free journals, PubMedCentral over 3 million
access movement such as Peter Suber, Alma Swan
articles and searchable articles in Directory of Open
and others. Further, institutions like Scholarly
Access Journals (DOAJ) is over 1.6 million1.
Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition
Many scholarly journals have embraced open access (SPARC) have led to the dramatic growth of open
model in a big way and their acceptance among access through various initiatives in the form of
authors for publishing articles has also steadily repositories, open access journals, open courseware,
increased. Owing to its potential features, even the Open Educational Resources (OERs) etc. The open
leading publishers like Elsevier, Taylor and Francis, access initiatives considerably influenced scholarly
Springer and others have introduced open access communities and also forced governments, funding
journals2. As listed in DOAJ, open access journals agencies, universities and research councils to change
now account for 9919 titles across disciplines3. Their their policies to ensure that scholarly content of any
number stands still higher, if such journals listed or research funded by them should be publicly
indexed in other directories and search engines are accessible. Influence of information and
ANN. LIB. INF. STU., SEPTEMBER 2014
200
communication technology is another important by any other directories, search engines or individual
factor, especially the Internet, made it possible for titles available on the Internet.
open access to change the face of publishing and
distribution from pure print to online only.
Methodology
Numerous studies have been undertaken by
Journals related to the field of LIS were identified by
researchers to study the growth of open access
undertaking a subject search on Library Science
journals. Falk in his study observed that there were
using downloaded metadata of journals from DOAJ.
1200 open access journals in 2004 as compared to 5
From the extracted data in a spreadsheet, it is found
journals in 19924. McVeigh pointed out growing
that total 147 titles are related to the field of LIS.
coverage of number of open access journals in the
Websites of each of the journals were visited to check
citation indexes provided by Thomson Reuters5.
the current status of the journals. Impact factor of the
Morris explored the status of openness of journals
journals were obtained from Journal Citation Reports
included in DOAJ6. Gul, Vani and Majeed elaborated
2012.
the growth of open access journals covered in Scopus
citation database7. The study of Laakso et al on the
Analysis
development of open access publishing between 1993
Country-wise distribution of journals
and 2009 found rapid growth in open access journals8.
The growth of open access journals in the field of LIS
While looking at countrywise distribution of these
was explored in a few studies. Rufai, Gul & Shah
LIS journals, it was found that out of 147 titles, 37
found substantial growth of open access journals in
(25.17%) titles were published from USA, 14 (9.52%)
LIS2. Similarly, a study by Sivakumaren et al
from Brazil, 13 (8.84%) from Spain, 7 (4.76%) from
explored the growth of LIS journals covered in DOAJ
India and 6 (4.08%) from UK. On the other hand, 5
and found more open access journals were published
(3.40%) titles each published from Canada, Germany
during the period 1996-20059.
and Taiwan followed by 4 (2.72%) titles each from
Crotia and Iran. Further, 3 (2.04%) titles each
Objectives of study
published by four countries, 2 (1.36%) titles each by 9
countries and 1 (11.56%) title each by 17 countries.
The objectives of this study are:
The detailed countrywise distribution of journals has
i) To reveal the present status of open access
been given in Table 1.
journals in LIS;
Languages of publication
ii) To ascertain the coverage of open access journals
by abstracting and indexing databases; OA journals in LIS depicts 71 (48.30%) journals are
being published in English language, followed by 45
iii) To check impact factor (IF) of the OA journals;
(30.61%) in multiple languages (same journal titles
publishing in more than one language), 9 (6.12%) in
iv) To find out the use of open source platform Open
Spanish, 7 (4.76%) in Portuguese, 3 (2.04%) each in
Journal Systems ;
French, German and Polish, 2 (1.36%) in Croatian
v) To examine the Licensing model used for
and rest 1 each in different languages (Table 2).
distribution of content;
Currency of open access publication
vi) To trace the year from which open access to
articles is provided; and
Out of 147 titles published in the field of LIS, 134
(91.16%) have maintained their current publishing
vii) To have an idea of fee charged for publishing
trends. However, there is a delay in publication of 11
articles
(7.48%) journals for a year or more and details of 2
(1.36%) journals could not be ascertained as there was
Scope and limitations
no response from their websites. It is interesting to
The scope of the study is limited to LIS journals observe that, open access journals have sustained
covered in Directory of Open Access Journals themselves in spite of competition from titles
(DOAJ). The study does not include journals covered published by commercial publishers and harsh
PUJAR: OPEN ACCESS JOURNALS IN LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE: A STUDY
201
Table 1 Countrywise distribution of journals Table 2 Language of publication of journals
No. of Percentage
Country No. of journals Percentage
Language journals
USA 37 25.17
English 71 48.30
Brazil 14 9.52
Spanish 9 6.12
Spain 13 8.84 Portuguese 7 4.76
French 3 2.04
India 7 4.76
German 3 2.04
UK 6 4.08
Polish 3 2.04
Canada 5 3.40
Croatian 2 1.36
Germany 5 3.40 Bulgarian 1 0.68
Farsi 1 0.68
Taiwan 5 3.40
Persian 1 0.68
Croatia 4 2.72
Slovene 1 0.68
Iran 4 2.72
Multiple languages (same 45 30.61
journal titles publishing in
France 3 2.04
more than one language)
Netherlands 3 2.04
Poland 3 2.04
(1.36%) titles for which data could not be accessed;
Switzerland 3 2.04
remaining 47 titles have been covered only in DOAJ.
Cuba 2 1.36
Italy 2 1.36
Impact Factor (IF)
Lithuania 2 1.36
Impact factor (IF) of a journal is a measure to assess
Romania 2 1.36
the importance and weigh the quality of a journal in
comparison to other journals. While referring to
South Korea 2 1.36
Journal Citation Reports (JCR) of Thomson
Australia 2 1.36
Reuters , it was found that JCR has provided IF only
Denmark 2 1.36
for 6 (4.08%) journals.
Argentina 2 1.36
Open source journals platform
Turkey 2 1.36
Open source and open access are bound by the same
Other Countries (1 Journal each) 17 11.56
principle of distribution of source material at no cost.
While analyzing the platform on which LIS journals
economic trends. This may be credited to the efforts
have been hosted, it is found that out of 147 titles, 68
of publishers and support of authors in publishing
(46.26%) have been hosted on Open Journal System
their articles in open access journals.
(OJS) a popular open source platform used for journal
publishing. However, still 78 (53.06%) titles are using
Coverage in abstracting and indexing databases
their own platform to host and publish journals on the
Internet. The platform could not be assessed in case 2
Abstracting and indexing databases play a pivotal role
(1.36%) journals.
in indexing and distributing research works published
in journals and other scholarly resources to end users.
Licensing model
Out of 147 titles, 98 (66.67%) have been indexed in
various abstracting and indexing databases such as In true spirit of open access, LIS journals have started
Library and Information Science Abstract (LISA), adopting Creative Commons (CC) license
Library, Information Science and Technology (http://www.creativecommons.org) for distributing
Abstracts (LISTA), SCOPUS, LATINDEX etc. Apart content and allowing users to modify and distribute
from that they have been covered by scholarly search content. However, in some cases certain rights are
engines like Google Scholar and full text databases reserved such as no derivative works to be generated,
such as EBSCO, ABI/INFORM etc. Leaving apart 2 not to be used for commercial purposes etc. From the
ANN. LIB. INF. STU., SEPTEMBER 2014
202
study, it was found, out of 147 titles, 71 (48.30%) these in a big way. Publishers of journals in LIS, if
have adopted Creative Commons license to distribute adopt certain Web 2.0 tools to promote and measure
the content. Such a rate of high adoption of CC content may lead to wider dissemination of research
license is a welcome sign to free the content from and bring in popularity. Quality of content and
complex copyright regulations. unethical practices of publishing followed by some
journals is a worrying factor for the sustainable
Year of publication v/s open access
growth of open access journals.
In order to ascertain, whether LIS journals provide
open access from their first year of publication, it was
References
found that in case of 111 (75.50%) journals, their year
1. Morrison H, Dramatic Growth of Open Access June 30,
of publication is same as year of open access and only
2014. Available at: http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.in/2014/-
in case of 34 (23.13%) journals it was different and
07/dramatic-growth-of-open-access-june-30.html (Accessed
data for 2 (1.36%) journals could not be found. It was on 10 Jul 2014).
also observed that some of the journals increased their
2. Rufai R, Gul S and Shah T A, Open access journals in LIS,
Trends in Information Management, 7 (2) (2011) 218-228.
open access content over a period of time, may be
3. DOAJ, Available at: http://www.doaj.org (Accessed on 15
owing to digitization of content of previous volumes.
Jul 2014).
4. Falk H, Open access gains momentum, The Electronic
Publication fee
Library, 22 (6) (2004), 527-530.
One of the models followed to sustain open access
5. McVeigh M E, Open access journals and the ISI citation
publishing is Article Processing Charges (APC) database: Analysis of impact factors and citation patterns. A
Citation study from Thomson Scientific, 2004. Available at:
levied on authors to publish articles in open access
http://ip-science.thomsonreuters.com/m/pdfs/openaccesscita-
journals. However, from the analysis it was found
tions2.pdf (Accessed on 8 Jul 2014).
that, 138 (93.88%) LIS journals are not charging any
6. Morris S, Personal View: When is a journal not a journal - a
fee to authors and only 6 (4.08%) titles are currently
closer look at the DOAJ, Learned Publishing, 19 (1) (2006)
charging APC, 1 (0.68%) title is levying conditional
73-76. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/09531510677-
5122565 (Accessed on 7 Jul 2014).
charges and no data could be obtained for 2 (1.36%)
7. Gul S, Vani Z A and Majeed I, Open access journals: A
titles.
global perspective. Trends in Information Management, 4 (1)
(2008) 1-19.
Conclusion
8. Laakso M, Welling P, Bukvova H, Nyman L, Bjo¨ rk B-C
and Hedlund T, The development of open access journal
Sustainability of open access journals in LIS is
publishing from 1993 to 2009, PLoS ONE, 6(6) (2011)
evident from the study. Even though developing
e20961.
countries are lagging behind in publishing open
9. Sivakumaren K S, Jeyapragash B, Swaminathan S and
access LIS journals, but a few countries have taken a
Karthikeyan J, A study on open access journals in library and
lead in publishing OA journals such as Brazil and
information science: With reference to DOAJ (Directory of
India. For the further growth of open access journals
Open Access Journals), International Journal of Library
in LIS, researchers and organizations need to embrace Science, 6 (2) (2012) 80-87.
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