STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE
FOR OPEN ACCESS PUBLICATIONS
Muhammad Shakeel,
Editorial Director
Science Publications Australia
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TYPES OF PUBLISHING CONCEPTS
SUBSCRIPTION-BASED PUBLISHING
OPEN ACCESS PUBLISHING
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- We have seen the introduction, success and demise of many technologies
and business strategies
- One main example being Kodak’s highly popular and successful film
cameras
- It failed after the introduction of digital cameras
- We have a similar situation with Subscription-Based publishing
- Open Access is on the verge of replacing the traditional publishing model
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INTERNATIONAL LEGISLATIVE SUPPORT
Australia
Canada
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INTERNATIONAL LEGISLATIVE SUPPORT
United States
United Kingdom
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INTERNATIONAL LEGISLATIVE SUPPORT
European Funding Agencies
Universities
Libraries
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ADVANTAGES OF OPEN ACCESS
Free Access to Research
Greater Visibility
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DISADVANTAGES OF OPEN ACCESS
Article Processing Charges
Lack of Quality
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UNETHICAL OPEN ACCESS PUBLISHING
- Has become very easy for people with spare time and a few computer
skills to launch their own publication
- This is damaging the open access concept
- Two incidents presented today are:
- SciencePublication.org a publisher of two open access journals
- Journal of Coastal Life Medicine
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Original Publisher Website
Hoax Publisher Website
Domain:thescipub.com
Domain:sciencepublication.org
- Uses our publisher’s name in its efforts to cash our brand name
- Serious case of Identify Theft in both South Australia and in the
United States
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JOURNAL OF COASTAL LIFE MEDICINE
Uses Elsevier’s logo on its website without approval
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OPEN ACCESS STATISTICS
As of February 2013
As of August 2014,
Electronic Journals Library (EZB)
DOAJ reported the inclusion of 9,947 journals
reports 38,483 e-journals
ALARMING CONSIDERING THAT MOST PUBLICATIONS ARE NOT FOLLOWING ANY GUIDELINES
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STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE
- Standardization is defined as the process of developing and implementing
technical standards.
- It is necessary to develop a model that can be used by all open access
publications
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PROPOSED METHOD
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IMPLEMENTATION OF PROPOSED MODEL
IN SCIENCE PUBLICATIONS: A CASE STUDY
- We have implemented this model for one of our journals
- This model is highly effective and very efficient
- Only concern is the availability of reviewers
- Some of them are busy with their academic duties
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CONCLUSION
- Open Access Publishing is a viable publishing concept
- Publications need to follow some guidelines (SOP) to ensure the quality
of the Open Access model
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FUTURE DIRECTIONS
The ACSE should establish committees to work on the following suggestions:
1. Recommend a standard operating procedure for scholarly journals.
2. Offer courses to authors, reviewers and editors regarding different aspects of the publication
process.
3. Design and Offer extensive courses regarding the ethical issues that can arise during the
publishing process. If possible the committee should collaborate with COPE to arrange seminars
with experts in the field of publication ethics.
4. If any member is found to be involved in unethical practice, some fines should be applied or the
party at fault should be enforced to attend some specially designed course for the such incident.
Penalty may be deposited to the account of ACSE.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to acknowledge the support of the following organizations
for their generous assistance:
Science Publications Australia
The Asian Council of Science Editors (ACSE)
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