Open Access E-journals: Past, Present, and Future

Authors

  • Emilio Delgado López-Cózar University of Granada

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7203/relieve.21.1.5005

Keywords:

Scientific Communication, Scientific Publishing, Electronic Journals, Scientific Journals, Open Access Journals

Abstract

This article begins by tracing the origin and development of electronic journals in open access, how they emerged, how they were defined, and what needs to be answered. It explains how the transition from the printed world to the electronic came to be in the design and concept of journals; and notes exactly when the launch of these types of publications occurred. To describe the real situation of the journals it uses data provided by the directory of electronic publications Ulrichs and the directory of journals in open access DOAJ. It calculates the number of journals circulating and offers an editorial profile portrait of the current journals. It discovers the existence of a distinct editorial pattern (language, country of origin, type of editorial) in the open access electronic journals, versus the journals published worldwide and especially in respect to those with greater prestige that are indexed in the Journal Citation Reports. In the open access journals there exists a greater role for non-Anglo countries and languages. Also, it detects an extraordinary fragmentation of the editorials that differ from the multinationals that monopolize the market of scientific communication. It concludes reflecting on the challenges and threats that hover over these types of publications: about how the printed world will fade, how these journals will be financed, how to prevent fraud expansion of pirated journals, and declares the emergence of a new model of scientific communication

Author Biography

Emilio Delgado López-Cózar, University of Granada

Dr Emilio Delgado Lopez-Cozar is a Professor of Research Methods at the University of Granada and Founder of the EC3 Research Group (Science and Scientific Communication Evaluation), specialising in bibliometrics and research evaluation. He is a principal creator of  numerous tools for scientific evaluation in the Spanish environment, including IN-RECS, IN-RECJ, IN-RECH, I-UGR Ranking of Spanish Universities, H Index Scholar, Integrated Classification of Scientific Journals or EC3 Meta-Ranking of Spanish Universities, among others

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Published

2015-05-15

Issue

Vol. 21 No. 1 (2015)

Section

Research Articles

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