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When looking for journals to acquire, publishers will find many specialized academic journals that are managed outside university presses. Some are run by individual editorial offices, others by associations, and some under other arrangements. While these journals may not have large circulation numbers, they often have a faithful readership. Understanding the differences between the way a journal was managed in the past and the way a university press can manage it going forward will help the parties involved—publishers and editors—make an orderly transition through acquisition. A press planning to acquire a small, specialized journal should set at least four goals that will enable the journal to gain greater stability and prestige: 1) modifying or even overhauling the existing budget to improve its financial health, 2) amplifying its scholarly reputation, 3) designing it appropriately, and 4) marketing it more widely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of scholarly journals being published in Korea has massively expanded since the late 1990s, and this expansion has been accompanied by larger numbers of international scholars from outside Korea publishing in Korean journals. Alongside this expansion in the number of Korean journals has been an increase in competition among journals, a need for journals to seek recognition from various authorities, and a desire to expand readership beyond Korea. However, little has been written about these important changes in Korean scholarly publishing. This article provides an overview of the current state of Korean scholarly publishing and then examines the experiences of international academics publishing in Korean journals. Finally, this article discusses five lessons that can productively inform those who are refashioning Korean journals in this new, highly competitive environment of global publishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to determine the impact of open access on the publishing policies of Spanish scholarly journals indexed by Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus. The study sample was obtained in October 2013. After discarding those that were not published in Spain and those that were inactive, we were left with a total of 406 journals (392 in Scopus and 171 in WoS, with an overlap of 157). Seven key indicators were established: age, subject area, language, publisher, portals, type of access, and copyright. Most of the data were gathered by directly analyzing the websites of the journals. Information from the Dulcinea directory was also used. Most of the journals (63 per cent of the total) were first published after 1980. Universities and commercial publishers were the most significant publishers, accounting for 42 per cent and 31 per cent of all journals, respectively. Social sciences and health sciences were the most significant disciplines, accounting for 33 per cent each. Of the journals, 60 per cent were available free immediately after publication and 76 per cent granted permission for self-archiving a version of the manuscript. By combining the two results, we estimated that 48 per cent of all journals were open access (offering free access and permission for self-archiving). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To learn about the current situation of open access (OA) in Chinese social science journals, 714 journals listed in the Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index (CSSCI) in 2012 to 2013 were chosen to investigate, and search engines were used to analyze the OA status of these journals and their articles. The results showed that 13.73 per cent of journals in the CSSCI are OA, their OA format is mostly PDF, and 84.69 per cent of their OA resources are gathered from the publishing years 2004 to 2012. The level of OA journals focusing on different subjects is unbalanced in China. Articles from each journal published in 2007 were selected according to different standards to study the relationship of OA and citation. The results showed that the OA level of highly cited articles is higher than that of low- and non-cited articles. Factors that may restrict OA development in China were analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the little journal to do in this era of impact factors, burgeoning lists of international publications available in both hard copy and online, and academic effort being increasingly focused on attaining the highest profile for an individual’s home institution? It seems that viable models are get big, if you can, or stay small and serve a specialist/regional audience. The middle ground of a moderate profile journal that does not appear on the right citation indices appears to be a recipe for extinction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a set of values and goals that endures in scholarly publishing through the vagaries of format innovations, changing market conditions, and shifting intellectual fashions: a commitment to the idea of ideas; dedication to the essentials of communication, even at the price of hiding our part as publishers in the equation; and an appreciation of the power of transforming thought. As scholarly publishers, we nurture the 'play' of thought that is the life of the mind, and, in turn, in becoming what we do, we are the better for it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of scholarly publishing and the internationalization of academic journals in China, peer review has begun to gain ground as well. After briefly summarizing the recent academic debate on the validity of peer review and the function of peer experts, the authors look into the major problems with the existing peer-review practices of academic journals in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If your research paper is rejected for publication by a peer-reviewed journal, what do you do next? Some editors would suggest that it should not be sent to another journal, yet there are contributors who would just put a ‘failed’ paper straight back in the mail to another journal and trust to luck. I argue that rejection should be a time for reassessment, when the input of the editor(s) and reviewers(s), all experts in their field, should be considered and acted upon as necessary. The revitalized and improved contribution can then be sent to a new journal with confidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses fraudulent activities in scholarly publishing. Scholarly publishers go to great lengths to instruct each new generation of Doctor of Philosophy graduates in the ethics of how to go about breaking into print. Consider the case of the young scholar--not a rookie, to be sure, but new enough to the academic life to be still in the process of establishing his career--who approached a prominent university press with an idea for a new edition of a long-out-of-print volume of considerable merit. He proposed to write an introduction and whatever else might be required, in return, not for money, but simply for a bit of credit on the title page. A few weeks later, the young scholar received the news: The publisher did not want an introduction, but perhaps the young man would be willing to provide a couple of pages of biographical material about the dead guy who had written the book?

Examines the practices and strategies of publishers and their likely evolution and impact on libraries. Review on the basic economic facts about scholarly journal publishing; Discussion on the demise of print journals; Problems facing publishers on the way toward eliminating print editions.

Deals with the problem of issue dating to the enterprise of scholarly journal publishing. How publishers can restructure schedules to reduce the problem; Things that editors need to learn to deal with the traditional snarls of publishing a non-monthly scholarly journal; Points that an editor of a journal who has fallen behind schedule would consider before deciding how to get the publication schedule back on track.