Academic communities: The role of journals and open-access mega-journals in scholarly communication
The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into publication practices from the perspective of academics working within four disciplinary communities: biosciences, astronomy/physics, education and history. The paper explores the ways in which these multiple overlapping communities intersect wit...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | Russian |
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Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, State Public Scientific Technological Library
2019-06-01
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| Series: | Библиосфера |
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| Online Access: | https://www.bibliosphere.ru/jour/article/view/33 |
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| author | S. Wakeling V. Spezi J. Fry C. Creaser S. Pinfield P. Willett |
| author_facet | S. Wakeling V. Spezi J. Fry C. Creaser S. Pinfield P. Willett |
| author_sort | S. Wakeling |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into publication practices from the perspective of academics working within four disciplinary communities: biosciences, astronomy/physics, education and history. The paper explores the ways in which these multiple overlapping communities intersect with the journal landscape and the implications for the adoption and use of new players in the scholarly communication system, particularly open-access mega-journals (OAMJs). OAMJs (e. g. PLOS ONE and Scientific Reports) are large, broad scope, open-access journals that base editorial decisions solely on the technical/scientific soundness of the article. Design/methodology/approach: focus groups with active researchers in these fields were held in five UK Higher Education Institutions across Great Britain, and were complemented by interviews with pro-vicechancellors for research at each institution. Findings: а strong finding to emerge from the data is the notion of researchers belonging to multiple overlapping communities, with some inherent tensions in meeting the requirements for these different audiences. Researcher perceptions of evaluation mechanisms were found to play a major role in attitudes towards OAMJs, and interviews with the pro-vice-chancellors for research indicate that there is a difference between researchers’ perceptions and the values embedded in institutional frameworks. Originality/value: This is the first purely qualitative study relating to researcher perspectives on OAMJs. The findings of the paper will be of interest to publishers, policy-makers, research managers and academics. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-4ccfa28a4dcb4328a69349517c546923 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 1815-3186 2712-7931 |
| language | Russian |
| publishDate | 2019-06-01 |
| publisher | Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, State Public Scientific Technological Library |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Библиосфера |
| spelling | doaj-art-4ccfa28a4dcb4328a69349517c5469232025-08-20T02:53:46ZrusSiberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, State Public Scientific Technological LibraryБиблиосфера1815-31862712-79312019-06-010231410.20913/1815-3186-2019-2-3-1432Academic communities: The role of journals and open-access mega-journals in scholarly communicationS. Wakeling0V. Spezi1J. Fry2C. Creaser3S. Pinfield4P. Willett5University of SheffieldLoughborough UniversityLoughborough UniversityLoughborough UniversityUniversity of SheffieldUniversity of SheffieldThe purpose of this paper is to provide insights into publication practices from the perspective of academics working within four disciplinary communities: biosciences, astronomy/physics, education and history. The paper explores the ways in which these multiple overlapping communities intersect with the journal landscape and the implications for the adoption and use of new players in the scholarly communication system, particularly open-access mega-journals (OAMJs). OAMJs (e. g. PLOS ONE and Scientific Reports) are large, broad scope, open-access journals that base editorial decisions solely on the technical/scientific soundness of the article. Design/methodology/approach: focus groups with active researchers in these fields were held in five UK Higher Education Institutions across Great Britain, and were complemented by interviews with pro-vicechancellors for research at each institution. Findings: а strong finding to emerge from the data is the notion of researchers belonging to multiple overlapping communities, with some inherent tensions in meeting the requirements for these different audiences. Researcher perceptions of evaluation mechanisms were found to play a major role in attitudes towards OAMJs, and interviews with the pro-vice-chancellors for research indicate that there is a difference between researchers’ perceptions and the values embedded in institutional frameworks. Originality/value: This is the first purely qualitative study relating to researcher perspectives on OAMJs. The findings of the paper will be of interest to publishers, policy-makers, research managers and academics.https://www.bibliosphere.ru/jour/article/view/33scholarly communicationqualitative methodsopen accessacademic communitiesdiscourse communitiesopen-access mega-journals |
| spellingShingle | S. Wakeling V. Spezi J. Fry C. Creaser S. Pinfield P. Willett Academic communities: The role of journals and open-access mega-journals in scholarly communication Библиосфера scholarly communication qualitative methods open access academic communities discourse communities open-access mega-journals |
| title | Academic communities: The role of journals and open-access mega-journals in scholarly communication |
| title_full | Academic communities: The role of journals and open-access mega-journals in scholarly communication |
| title_fullStr | Academic communities: The role of journals and open-access mega-journals in scholarly communication |
| title_full_unstemmed | Academic communities: The role of journals and open-access mega-journals in scholarly communication |
| title_short | Academic communities: The role of journals and open-access mega-journals in scholarly communication |
| title_sort | academic communities the role of journals and open access mega journals in scholarly communication |
| topic | scholarly communication qualitative methods open access academic communities discourse communities open-access mega-journals |
| url | https://www.bibliosphere.ru/jour/article/view/33 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT swakeling academiccommunitiestheroleofjournalsandopenaccessmegajournalsinscholarlycommunication AT vspezi academiccommunitiestheroleofjournalsandopenaccessmegajournalsinscholarlycommunication AT jfry academiccommunitiestheroleofjournalsandopenaccessmegajournalsinscholarlycommunication AT ccreaser academiccommunitiestheroleofjournalsandopenaccessmegajournalsinscholarlycommunication AT spinfield academiccommunitiestheroleofjournalsandopenaccessmegajournalsinscholarlycommunication AT pwillett academiccommunitiestheroleofjournalsandopenaccessmegajournalsinscholarlycommunication |