Monday, June 17, 2013

LIS publisher Emerald: profit, not knowledge-sharing?

As sent to various lists, June 17, 2013. Update June 17 - comment from Issac Gilman inserted into the message for context. LIS publisher Emerald has introduced a 24-month embargo on authors whose institutions have open access mandates, according to Richard Poynder on Open and Shut: http://poynder.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/open-access-emeralds-green-starts-to.html This is a significant backtrack from what was a really good open access archiving policy. As of today, there are 146 titles listed under Library and Information Studies in the Directory of Open Access Journals, and most say Publication Fee - No: http://www.doaj.org/doaj?func=subject&cpId=129&uiLanguage=en

Librarians, Emerald current and potential editors, authors, and reviewers, perhaps it is time to ditch this "it's about the profit" publisher in favour of journals that prioritize sharing of our knowledge? If none of the current DOAJ titles fit your scholarly niche - why not start your own?

I heartily agree - that's what we did! :) says Isaac Gilman of the Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication
(inserted in original text for context)

best,

Heather G. Morrison The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics
http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com

Thanks to Richard Poynder for this additional background:

Librarians have been here before: http://www.infotoday.com/it/nov02/poynder.htm. The library organisation ASLIB sold all its journals to Emerald, and then the organisation appears to have sold itself to Emerald, if I am reading this correctly: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/about/news/story.htm?id=2257