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November 30, 2008
Expanding the value of scholarly, open access e-journals
In the newest issue of Library & Inforamtion Science Research (v30#4, Dec. 2008), Matthew Elbeck and Jean Mandernach propose a solution to the challenge of identifying high-quality articles within open access publications. Their article, "Expanding the value of scholarly, open access e-journals," describes the traditional quality indicators used in scholarly publishing, explains how those indicators are inadequate for open access publications, then describes a method that could be used to identify e-article quality.
The traditional methods of assessing the quality of a published scholarly article - including journal reputation and citation analysis - do not fit the new model of open access publishing. To overcome the skepticism inherent in online publishing, new methods of identifying article quality must be adopted, argue Elbeck and Mandernach. The method they suggest involves the article's author, reviewers, and readers. The article should be peer-reviewed, just as its print counterpart; as part of the review, reviewers assign a value ranking to the article. In addition, after its publication online, readers would provide assessment and complete an article satisfaction score. Quality of the article would be determined by the relationship between the article's value and reader satisfaction. Although there are challenges to overcome by this proposed system - such as the potential for controversy regarding value and satisfaction scores - this system could improve perceptions of open access journal quality.
posted by Jerianne Thompson
Posted by colldev at November 30, 2008 10:57 PM