October Issue of Learned Publishing

["Scott-Lichter, Diane" <diane.scottlichter@aacr.org>]

Learned Publishing October, issue 4 2011

Green, Green, it's Green OA they say... LP October issue now out

But is it really on the far side of the hill? Or further away? Or 
out of reach altogether?

Given the fashionable connotation that "green" implies 
sustainable development, a conclusion of a RIN (Research 
Information Network) study that Green OA is probably not the best 
model for a sustainable future might be seen as ironic. Or not, 
since "Green" and "Gold" were always peculiar terms to use. 
Whatever your persuasion, Michael Jubb and his co-authors take us 
through, in some detail, a summary of their work on this topic 
"Heading for the Open Road" (see where I got the idea of using 
some double meaning of the terminology?).

But we really give the implications of some of these ideas a 
working over in this issue of LP (by coincidence). We also have a 
detailed article from Julia Wallace updating us on the huge PEER 
project. This is investigating, with help from all sectors, any 
systematic effects of Green OA and has so far processed 44,000 
documents for its "observatory" - see where it's got to so far.

And then we have a survey from Chris Armbruster of many 
institutions, in a variety of countries, who have instituted a 
policy of repository deposit, and how they've got on, and what 
lessons can be learned.

All good stuff, but enough related to OA, you might say. Well, 
OK, but there's another article with a part repository angle at 
least. How can you know what usage of a published article is if 
the final version resides on both repositories and on the 
publisher site? Good question. PIRUS2 has been attempting to 
answer that and has decided it is feasible to aggregate the 
stats. Check out why they think that and what recommendations 
they make in Peter Shepherd's article.

Shifting gear a bit, have you wondered what results from 
deep-discounted or free access to journals for developing 
countries? Phil Davis has conducted a study for the agricultural 
area in sub-Saharan Africa - do they produce more, cite more etc 
as a result? Interesting findings.

Or perhaps you want to sell more to some of the quickly 
developing areas - following on from our article on Russia, we 
now have one on Brazil - no longer is the quote true: "it's the 
country of the future, and it always will be." David Myers fills 
us in on what is really the only show in town as far as Brazil is 
concerned, in "Selling to the BRIC - Brazil."

Back to the developed world -- we know, don't we, that just a few 
publishers produce most of the journals and articles, with a very 
long tail of smaller ones. But would you like to see it 
quantified? We have an article that tries to do that - do let me 
know if you fully understand the associated diagrams (not 
necessary to understand the article) and I might give you an 
honourable mention, or ask you to be a referee on future 
submissions.

The journal publishing system within China is changing fast, and 
we would all do well to watch it (more on this in future issues). 
But it's not without internal strains - a cry from some in the 
system - "will access be sacrificed for profit?" would presumably 
have been unthinkable a few years ago - see why they're worried.

And lastly, we have a research letter which may be the last word, 
as far as LP is concerned, on the "submit when hot" (i.e. re 
seasonal bias in peer review), plus, of course, some meaty book 
reviews.

Alan Singleton

Editor, Learned Publishing

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Diane Scott-Lichter
North American Editor, Learned Publishing