Preprint: "Positioning Open Access Journals in a LIS Journal Ranking"

Title: Positioning Open Access Journals in a LIS Journal Ranking (16 pages; PDF)
Author: Jingfeng Xia
Affiliation: Indiana University, School of Library and Information Science

Accepted: May 8, 2011
Scheduled For Publication in January 2012 Issue of College and Research Libraries

From the Abstract:

Academic journal ranking serves as an important criterion for the scholarly community to assess research quality and for librarians to select the best publications for collection development. Because of the complexity of publication behaviors, various approaches have been developed to assist in journal ranking, of which comparing the rates of citation using citation indexes to rate journals has been popularly practiced and recognized in most academic disciplines. ISI’s Journal Citation Reports (JCR) is among the most used rankings, which “offers a systematic, objective means to critically evaluate the world’s leading journals, with quantifiable, statistical information based on citation data.” Yet, citation-based journal rankings, such as JCR, have included few open access journals on their lists. Of these limited OA journals, many were either recently converted into open access or are publicly available with conditions. The relative exclusion of OA journals creates two deficiencies for scholarly communication.First, these rankings may not accurately portray the full picture of journal publications to reflect an on-going advancement in scholarship. Second, they may discourage the open access movement by marginalizing the majority of OA journals. In fact, some OA journals have successfully built reputations, attracting high-quality articles and sizable numbers of citations.

This research is an attempt to add selected OA journals to the journal quality rankings using library and information science (LIS) as an example. It is helpful to detect the position of OA journals in journal rankings so that scholars can recognize the progresses of OA publishing and make active contributions to support the OA movement. Such rankings will also encourage librarians and information professionals to improve the existing library publishing enterprise and make continuous efforts for journal practices.

Direct to Full Text Article (16 pages; PDF)

Hat Tip and Thanks: S. Sullivan

Filed under: Academic Libraries, Data Files, Libraries, Open Access, Publishing, Reports, Resources