re: Growth of OA Journals

[Heather Morrison <heatherm@eln.bc.ca>]

Thanks to Sally Morris for reporting on the Growth of OA 
Journals:

http://www.library.yale.edu/~llicense/ListArchives/0709/msg00018.html

Here is the citation to my report on this topic in a blogpost to 
The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics: DOAJ:  Strong Growth, 
and Understanding the Numbers

http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com/2007/09/doaj-strong-growth-and- 
understanding.html

As Sally points out, the number of journals in any given start 
year is fairly constant from about 2001 on (i.e., about 300 
journals in any given start year).  This suggest a new OA journal 
start-up rate of just under one per calendar day; the total 
number of OA journal growth is higher, of course, reflecting 
conversions as well as new start-ups.

It would be premature to conclude that this is a plateau in new 
OA journal start-ups.  Figures from 2000 and 2001, for example, 
may be more likely to reflect journal conversions as compared to 
more new OA journals starting in 2005.  There are also a number 
of factors which are likely to favor OA start-ups in the present 
and near future, including increasing awareness of OA, increasing 
availability of tools supporting OA publishing, such as Open 
Journal Systems, OA mandate policies and strong support from 
funding agencies.

When interpreting DOAJ numbers, it is important to remember that 
the purpose of DOAJ is to provide a quality list of current, 
fully open access, scholarly journals, not as a measure of open 
access.

Any opinion expressed in this e-mail is that of the author alone, 
and does not reflect the opinion or policy of BC Electronic 
Library Network or Simon Fraser University Library.

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