RE: How many (peer reveiwed) journals are there?

["David Prosser" <david.prosser@bodley.ox.ac.uk>]

Sally

The point is that nobody (as far as I'm aware) knows how many 
subscription titles listed as active by Ulrich's are actually 
dead.  We don't know how quickly and assiduously they remove 
titles.  As we can't make any useful comparisons your 10% figure 
is rather meaningless (as well as being out-of-date, as Lars 
mentioned).

David


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Sally Morris (Morris
Associates)
Sent: 11 November 2008 22:22
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: RE: How many (peer reveiwed) journals are there?

AS I pointed out in the original article, a subscription journal 
which published no or hardly any articles would die because the 
publisher would have nothing to sell.  An OA journal does not - 
thus an effectively dead journal (or one publishing hardly 
anything) can remain apparently on the 'live list' indefinitely. 
Thus I think it would be highly unlikely that one would find a 
similar percentage of subscription journals in a similar case.

Sally Morris
Consultant, Morris Associates (Publishing Consultancy)
Email:  sally@morris-assocs.demon.co.uk

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of David Prosser
Sent: 10 November 2008 01:25
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: RE: How many (peer reveiwed) journals are there?

Sally

Looking back at your research I see that 'a lot' means about 10%.
I know that the DOAJ has worked hard to weed-out journals that
are no longer current, but these things are fluid and there will
always be some listed that are not currently publishing.  I'm
sure that some of the subscription titles listed in UIrich's as
being active are actually no longer current. Unfortunately, you
did not do a comparative study so we have no idea if 10% really
is a lot compared to subscription titles or just reflective of
the general churn in the journals market.

David C Prosser
Director, SPARC Europe
Web:    www.sparceurope.org