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January issue of Learned Publishing
The January 2009 issue of Learned Publishing is now online. Our
readers said, in response to our recent survey, that they wanted
more practical articles, more on the humanities, and more on
books and other non-journal products. We hope you'll like the
very broad mix of articles here.
All articles are free to all ALPSP and SSP members and to journal
subscribers; in addition, editorials, reviews and letters to the
Editors, as well as any articles where the author has taken up
the 'ALPSP Author Choice' OA option, are now free to all. If
you're not a subscriber, why not sign up for a free trial?
If you would like to receive an email alert or RSS feed every
time a new issue goes online, all you have to do is sign up at
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/alpsp/lp.
E-books and other non-journal models, some of them highly
innovative, feature in a number of articles in this issue; the
arts, humanities and social sciences are also well represented in
these articles:
Rafael Ball gives us the librarian's take on the pros and cons of
e-books, and a wish-list for publishers
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/095315108X378730).
Sean Pidgeon describes the development of a radically new model -
part journal, part encyclopedia - for the Wiley Interdisciplinary
Reviews (http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/095315108X378721) - this
article is Open Access.
Kathryn Earle offers a case study of the development of Berg
Publishing's Berg Fashion Library, a complex online resource
combining features of an encyclopedia, an A&I database, and more
besides (http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/095315108X378758).
Kate Wittenberg describes another development in humanities
publishing - the Gutenberg-e project at Columbia University
Press, in which online-only publication led to radical
transformation of monographs in history
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/095315108X378767).
Librarian Ben Wagner's 'Points of View' says why he thinks that
many A&I databases may be doomed
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/095315108X378820).
There are also, of course, a number of journal-related topics:
The particular issues confronting journals from
non-English-speaking countries are addressed in two articles:
Shi Wei and Nancy Benson give an account of the development of
Frontiers of Environmental Science and Engineering in China, one
of a series of Chinese journals, and what needed to be done to
ensure that it made its mark internationally
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/095315108X378776). And Dario
Sambunjak et al researched the different attitudes and
author/reader behaviours of Croatian doctors to national and to
international journals
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/095315108X378785).
The form of the journal article is discussed in the Editorial
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/095315108X378703 - Open Access), which
asks why it remains relatively unchanged, despite all that's
going on in the rapidly evolving world of scholarly
communication.
Citation is examined by former librarian Philip Davis
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/095315108X378712), who looks at the
different 'values' that citation can have - either as a reward to
the cited scholar, or as a form of persuasion, adding weight to
the writer's arguments.
Publishers often wonder how to reward those who carry out the
unpaid task of peer review: Gene Sprouse
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/095315108X378749) provides an account
of the way that the American Physical Society has recently
started to acknowledge the contribution of journal reviewers.
Pricing is another perennial topic, and Adam Chesler and Susan
King (http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/095315108X378767) take us through
the American Chemical Society's development of a new type of
pricing model for online journals - a process which many other
publishers might wish to emulate.
Fytton Rowland's 'Points of View' makes the case for the value of
copy-editing in journals
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/095315108X378802).
Finally, there are three reviews (all Open Access): one, by Toby
Green, of the third ALPSP report Scholarly Publishing Practice by
John and Laura Cox (http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/095315108X378839);
the second, by Carole Richmond, of the Association of American
Publishers' Handbook on Book Paper and the Environment
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/095315108X378848); and the third, by
Kevin Murphy, of another ALPSP report, Author-perceived Quality
Characteristics of Science, Technology and Medicine Journals by
John Regazzi and Selenay Aytac
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/095315108X378857).
Enjoy your reading (and if anything stimulates you to respond,
don't hesitate to contact us)!
Sally Morris, Editor-in-Chief (editor@alpsp.org)
Janet Fisher, North American Editor (us-editor@alpsp.org)