Scholarly Publishing and Libraries

Open Access and You

Linda Blake
Science Librarian
WVU Libraries, Downtown Campus Library
linda.blake@mail.wvu.edu

Publishing Milieu: History

“Information wants to be free.” 

-Stewart Brand

Publishing Milieu: History

• 1455 Gutenberg Bible printed
• 1878 Remington typewriter
• 1974 Internet
• 1975 The first PC
• 1985 Desk top publishing
• 1991 The World Wide Web
• 1998 Google
• 2011 eBooks outsell paper books Amazon
• The rest is now

From: http://www.bookediting.ca/timeline.html

Publishing Milieu: Cost

• $4K   Average cost of a chemistry journal
• $13K Print subscription to Brain Research
• $36   Single article from Brain Research
• $93   Average cost of a history book
• 7%    Change in cost of a periodical 2015

Source: “Book Trade Research and Statistics” Library and Book Trade Almanac.  2016

Publishing Milieu: Growth

• 28K Active scholarly peer-reviewed journals in English
• 2.5 Million Articles per year
• 12 % Open access articles
• 10K    OA articles in the DOAJ

Source: “The STM Report: An Overview of Scientific and Scholarly Journal Publishing.” International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers, 2014

Publishing Milieu: Trends

• Open institutional repositories for university publishing
• SciHub, a pirated database of scientific papers, taken down
• Library-provided access to eBooks without cost to library patrons
• WikiLeaks, information is set free

Harmon, Amy.  (2016) New York Times. March 16, 2016. http://nyti.ms/1XsJPHp 

Publishing Milieu: Trends

• Publishing is Dead.
• Long Live Publishing.
• Open repositories
  
• SciHub
• Library-Provided Access to eBooks
• WikiLeaks
  

Source: https://charlottemillsarts2090unsw.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/jo-image-publishing-is-dead.jpg

Publishing Milieu: Dubious, Nefarious, Predatory OA Publishing

"International Journal of Precious Engineering Research and Applications"

• New journal, especially if publisher launched many at the same time
• Title close to a well-established journal 
• Developing-world publisher
• Not indexed in standard indexes such as DOAJ
• Poorly designed web pages sometimes with sensational graphics, misspellings
• (no) Editors not real or edit many, many journals
• Clear indication of open access fees

Publishing Milieu: Good News

• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
• Institutional Repositories
• WorldCat for Books
• Your Brain
• Library Research Guide