January issue of Learned Publishing

["Sally Morris \(Morris Associates\)" <sally@morris-assocs.demon.co.uk>]

The January 2009 issue of Learned Publishing is now online. Our 
readers said, in response to our recent survey, that they wanted 
more practical articles, more on the humanities, and more on 
books and other non-journal products.  We hope you'll like the 
very broad mix of articles here.

All articles are free to all ALPSP and SSP members and to journal 
subscribers; in addition, editorials, reviews and letters to the 
Editors, as well as any articles where the author has taken up 
the 'ALPSP Author Choice' OA option, are now free to all.  If 
you're not a subscriber, why not sign up for a free trial?

If you would like to receive an email alert or RSS feed every 
time a new issue goes online, all you have to do is sign up at 
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/alpsp/lp.

E-books and other non-journal models, some of them highly 
innovative, feature in a number of articles in this issue;  the 
arts, humanities and social sciences are also well represented in 
these articles:

Rafael Ball gives us the librarian's take on the pros and cons of 
e-books, and a wish-list for publishers 
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/095315108X378730).

Sean Pidgeon describes the development of a radically new model - 
part journal, part encyclopedia - for the Wiley Interdisciplinary 
Reviews (http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/095315108X378721) - this 
article is Open Access.

Kathryn Earle offers a case study of the development of Berg 
Publishing's Berg Fashion Library, a complex online resource 
combining features of an encyclopedia, an A&I database, and more 
besides (http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/095315108X378758).

Kate Wittenberg describes another development in humanities 
publishing - the Gutenberg-e project at Columbia University 
Press, in which online-only publication led to radical 
transformation of monographs in history 
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/095315108X378767).

Librarian Ben Wagner's 'Points of View' says why he thinks that 
many A&I databases may be doomed 
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/095315108X378820).

There are also, of course, a number of journal-related topics:

The particular issues confronting journals from 
non-English-speaking countries are addressed in two articles: 
Shi Wei and Nancy Benson give an account of the development of 
Frontiers of Environmental Science and Engineering in China, one 
of a series of Chinese journals, and what needed to be done to 
ensure that it made its mark internationally 
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/095315108X378776).  And Dario 
Sambunjak et al researched the different attitudes and 
author/reader behaviours of Croatian doctors to national and to 
international journals 
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/095315108X378785).

The form of the journal article is discussed in the Editorial 
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/095315108X378703 - Open Access), which 
asks why it remains relatively unchanged, despite all that's 
going on in the rapidly evolving world of scholarly 
communication.

Citation is examined by former librarian Philip Davis 
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/095315108X378712), who looks at the 
different 'values' that citation can have - either as a reward to 
the cited scholar, or as a form of persuasion, adding weight to 
the writer's arguments.

Publishers often wonder how to reward those who carry out the 
unpaid task of peer review:  Gene Sprouse 
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/095315108X378749) provides an account 
of the way that the American Physical Society has recently 
started to acknowledge the contribution of journal reviewers.

Pricing is another perennial topic, and Adam Chesler and Susan 
King (http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/095315108X378767) take us through 
the American Chemical Society's development of a new type of 
pricing model for online journals - a process which many other 
publishers might wish to emulate.

Fytton Rowland's 'Points of View' makes the case for the value of 
copy-editing in journals 
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/095315108X378802).

Finally, there are three reviews (all Open Access):  one, by Toby 
Green, of the third ALPSP report Scholarly Publishing Practice by 
John and Laura Cox (http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/095315108X378839); 
the second, by Carole Richmond, of the Association of American 
Publishers' Handbook on Book Paper and the Environment 
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/095315108X378848);  and the third, by 
Kevin Murphy, of another ALPSP report, Author-perceived Quality 
Characteristics of Science, Technology and Medicine Journals by 
John Regazzi and Selenay Aytac 
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/095315108X378857).

Enjoy your reading (and if anything stimulates you to respond, 
don't hesitate to contact us)!

Sally Morris, Editor-in-Chief (editor@alpsp.org)
Janet Fisher, North American Editor (us-editor@alpsp.org)