Libraries as Publishers
Using Open Journal Systems to Produce OA Content
Tabatha Farney
Web Services Librarian
Kraemer Family Library
November 21, 2009
Ideas Covered
• Open access publishing
• Using Open Journal Systems
• URJ-UCCS case study
“Decision Making” created by
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sunshinecity/
“Libraries have always
been creators or
publishers of information.”
– Catherine Harboe-Ree
Introducing
OPEN ACCESS PUBLISHING
What is Open Access?
“Open-access (OA) literature is digital,
online, free of charge, and free of
most copyright and licensing
restrictions.” – Peter Suber
“Copywrong” created by
wakingtiger
Modes of Open Access publishing:
- OA Repositories
- OA Journals
Libraries in OA publishing (part 1)
School Libraries
o Lack of general discussion in literature?
o Idea: Student OA journals in teaching (Kopak,
2008)
Public Libraries
o Public Library 2.0 concept (Chowdhury, Poulter
and McMenemy, 2006)
o “community repository” (Boss, 2006)
Libraries in OA publishing (part 2)
Academic Libraries
o Institutional Repositories
o Dedicated publishing offices
o Journals
o Book presses
“Reference desk, Memorial Library”
created by cavlec
2008 ARL Report
“Research Library Publishing Services”
65% of the 80 responding libraries are currently
offering or planning to offer a publishing
service
* 88% of the publishing libraries are publishing
journals
2008 ARL Report
Sources of Funding for Individual Journal Titles
Practicality of Libraries as Journal
Publishers
• Need?
• Costs?
• Staffing
• Technology Requirements
• Time
“The completion of a publishing system’s set-up is by no means
the end of journal management; rather, it represents the
beginning of the journal’s ongoing expenses.” – Jingfeng Xia
Part 2:
Introducing Open Journal
Systems (OJS)
Journal Management Systems
Def: software that facilitates the journal
publishing process
• aka: publishing system or publishing platform
Come in many flavors:
9 Off site hosting
9 Locally hosted
9 Proprietary
9 Open source
9 Varying prices
9 Different functionalities
Lists of Journal Management Systems
Open Source
Proprietary
• Open Journal Systems
(PKP)
• DigitalCommons
(Berkley Electronic Press)
• Digital Publishing System
(DPubS by Cornell)
• BenchPress
(HighWire Press)
• E-Journal (Drupal)
• eJournalPress
About Open Journal Systems
• Developed by the Public Knowledge Project
• Group includes faculty members, librarians,
and graduate students
OJS: Pros & Cons
Pros
• Free
Cons
• “Indirect” costs
• Open source
• Support issues
• Local installation (local
control)
• Requires access to web
server and tech savvy
staff
• Customizable, but ready
“out of box”
• Instant dissemination via
Google Scholar
• Major customizations
require HTML, PHP and
MySQL
• Minimal internal statistics
OJS Examples
• Idaho Librarian
Official publication of the Idaho Librarian Association.
• Library Student Journal
Founded in 2006 by Masters students in the Department of Library
and Information Studies at the University at Buffalo.
• Collaborative Librarianship
A peer-reviewed library journal sponsored by Colorado Academic
Library Consortium, Colorado Library Consortium, Colorado Alliance of
Research Libraries, Regis University, University of Denver.
Part 3:
URJ-UCCS Case Study
Need for URJ-UCCS:
Faculty Survey
Faculty willing to encourage students to
publish in a Library hosted OA student
journal
24%
Yes
No
Unsure
3%
73%
Need for URJ-UCCS:
Filling a Niche
• Unique publication on
campus
• Showcasing quality
student research
© University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
URJ-UCCS Costs
Staffing = $0
• 2 “part-time” workers
• Slew of “volunteers”
Technology = $0
• OJS is free
• Uses campus servers
Time = $0
• Embedded into research
time
Total Direct Costs = $0 (or priceless)
Meet the
URJ-UCCS
Scope
URJ-UCCS publishes high quality
research and creative works
produced by undergraduate
students across the University of
Colorado at Colorado Springs
campus.
Fast Facts
™ First released in Aug. 2008
™ Irregular publication
™ Faculty review process
™ Uses a Creative Commons
license
URJ-UCCS: http://ojs.uccs.edu
Using OJS
Installation
– Handled by campus IT
Customization
• Minor changes
• plugins
Continuing Management
– Easy in the system
Setbacks
Becoming a “journal manager”
Responsibilities Include:
• Maintain the journal and system
• Market & solicit content
• Copyediting & layout editing
• Create and publish issues
• Collaborating with faculty
Inexperience in publishing process =
learning curve
“Difícil Decisión / Hard Decision”
created by juanignaciosl
Learning from Mistakes
Steps to improve the URJ-UCCS:
1. Reviewed other Undergraduate Research
Journals
2. Read guides to journal publishing
3. Worked with other librarians to identify
content
Make the service manageable for your library!!
Last, but not least…
CONCLUSIONS
URJ-UCCS Success
• Published 28 student papers in 5 issues
– Sixth issue coming soon!
• Increased journal usage
– usage in other countries
– Some papers downloaded over 450 times
• Administration & Faculty interest
Room to Grow
• Taking advantage of OJS
– Redesigning the journal
– Adding more plugins
– Integrating with UCCS repository?
• Marketing to readers
Overall Recommendations
• Review your situation and need
• Make it manageable
• Long term planning at the beginning
• Marketing is key
Sources
Cathrine Harboe-Ree, “Just Advanced Librarianship: The Role of Academic
Libraries as Publishers,” Australian Academic & Research Libraries 38,1
(March 2007): 15-25.
Peter Suber. “A Very Brief Introduction to Open Access.”
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/brief.htm
Rick Kopak, “Open Access and the Open Journal Systems: Making Sense All Over,”
School Libraries Worldwide 2008. 14 (2): 45-54.
Gobinda Chowdhury, Alan Poulter, David McMenemy. “Public Library 2.0: Towards
a new mission for public libraries as a “network of community knowledge."
Online Information Review 2006. 30 (4) 454 – 460.
Richard W. Boss. Institutional Repositories. PLA TechNotes (June 2006),
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/pla/plapublications/platechnotes/ALA_print_l
ayout_1_530635_530635.cfm
Karla L. Hahn, Research Library Publishing Services: New Options for University
Publishing (March 2008), http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/research-librarypublishing-services.pdf (accessed July 28, 2009).
Jingfeng Xia, “Library Publishing as a New Model of Scholarly Communication,”
Journal of Scholarly Publishing 40,4 (July 2009): 370-383.
Sources
“New Look, Enhanced Services for eScholarship: UC’s Open Access Digital
Publishing Service Launches New Site October 19.” University of California
(Oct. 19, 2009), http://escholarship.org/Release_Oct19.pdf
John Willinsky, “Open Journal Systems: An Example of Open Source Software for
Journal Management and Publishing,” Library Hi Tech 23.4 (2005): 504-519.
Your time to shine…
QUESTIONS/COMMENTS
Guides to help you start publishing
•
David Solomon, Developing Open Access Journals: A Practical Guide (Oxford, England:
Chandos Publishing, 2008). An abbreviated free version is available at:
http://www.developing-oa-journals.org/Guide_to_developing_oa_journals.pdf
•
Public Library of Science, “Publishing Open-Access Journals: A Brief Overview from the
Public Library of Science.” http://www.plos.org/downloads/oa_whitepaper.pdf
•
Sally Morris. Getting Started in Electronic Journal Publishing.5th ed. INSAP. 2005.
http://www.inasp.info/file/4f27e4469395717484b2d9581e20016a/book-getting-started-inelectronic-publishing.html
•
Lorna Shapiro, “Establishing and Publishing an Online Peer-reviewed Journal: Action Plan,
Resourcing, and Costs.” Public Knowledge Project, 2005.
http://pkp.sfu.ca/files/OJS_Project_Report_Shapiro.pdf
•
Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), Journal Management
Systems. http://www.arl.org/sparc/publisher/journal_management.shtml .
•
Mark Cyzyk and Sayeed Choudhury, “A Survey and Evaluation of Open-Source Electronic
Publishing Systems.” Johns Hopkins University and the Open Society Institute, April 2008.
https://wiki.library.jhu.edu/display/epubs
•
Open Access Directory. Simmons College. http://oad.simmons.edu/oadwiki/Main_Page