[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Creative Commons in Action, and the DOAJ growth doubled over t=

Don't worry Sandy. The users are no fools as the 80/20 rule
proves. As all Big Deals critiques know, 80% of all articles
downloaded are from 20% of the journals included in the
commercial parcels. The same rule applies even to OA journals.
Most journals are not used. They are a result of the publish or
perish philosophy rather than vanity publishing.

In the good old days libraries were gatekeepers. If a title was
not used, it was cancelled. If most libraries cancelled, the
market forces saw to it that the journal disappeared. That is not
working any more with the Big Deals but libraries can choose ot
include or not include a title in their catalogues. But still,
journals can't die today. The total quality is shrinking even if
more and more is open access.

Jean-Claude Guedon wrote about this problem a couple of years ago

Jan  Szczepanski


Sandy Thatcher wrote:

> I have to say that I find this statistic rather alarming. Does
> the world really need all these new journals? At least when
> libraries had to buy journals, there was some market discipline
> being exercised on the growth of new journals. And presumably
> some degree of expertise, by library staff or faculty advisors,
> was being exercised in the selection of new journals. But now
> it seems that journals are becoming another form of vanity
> publishing, if not outright scams as have been questioned on
> this listserv, and we are seeing an exponential rate of growth.
> Maybe we will soon get to the point where every faculty member
> will decide to edit an OA journal where all his or her friends
> can get published?
>
> Sandy Thatcher
> Penn State University Press
>
>
>> In 2007, DOAJ was adding titles at an average rate of 1.2 titles
>> per calendar day. In the past 11 months, DOAJ has been adding new
>> titles at an average rate of 2.2 titles per calendar day.
---2071850956-296611113-1220914029=:22880--