AJE is dedicated to helping international researchers and journal editors succeed. In addition to providing services such as editing, translation, and manuscript and figure formatting, we want to share our expertise through workshops and educational materials. Through this combination of service, education, and consultation, we aim to give a voice to research worldwide. If you want information about AJE s services, are interested in our education program, or have more questions about writing or publishing, please e-mail us at: education@aje.com. Journal Development Framework CONTENTS The Process of Scholarly Publishing 2 What Authors Want 3 Journal Development Framework 3 1. Journal Mission and Vision 4 2. Leadership 5 3. Journal Strategy 6 4. Editorial Policies 6 5. Authors 8 6. Reviewers 8 7. Technology 9 8. Content Production 9 9. Discovery 10 10. Marketing 10 References 11 Page 1
Scholarly Publishing Scholarly publishing is a critical part of advancing scientific discovery, but with the ever-increasing number of journals, how does one specific journal stand out? Drawing on our extensive experience with scholarly publishing and discussions with editors and publishers at a number of international journals, this framework represents our suggestions for launching or improving a scholarly journal. As of 2009, there were nearly 9 million researchers on Earth, with almost half of them coming from the developing world. The number is surely considerably higher today. Along with this massive workforce, there are currently over 30,000 scholarly journals publishing over 1.5 million articles each year. Make sure that your journal stands out! The Process of Scholarly Publishing Faculty, scholars, and students read journals, write articles, and provide editorial/review services Faculty Scholars and students who provide editorial services Write and read ar cles Academic Publishing Scholarly journals that func on as a interagent by ve ng, publishing and distribu ng the scholarly content of the journal Academic libraries who purchase the and distribute to faculty and students o Academics are encouraged to participate in the generation and dissemination of knowledge as well as in its promotion and advancement. Performing research Reading and writing articles Serving as editors and reviewers for journals o Scholarly journals provide four basic functions for researchers: Archiving research Registration of research to establish precedence Dissemination of research Stamp of approval by peer review Scholarly journals function as an interagent by vetting, publishing, and distributing scholarly content Academic libraries purchase journal subscriptions and provide access to faculty and students o Academic libraries select scholarly journals and share them with researchers, considering the following: Area of study The needs of the faculty, researchers and students for specific journals Budget (which is likely being reduced, leading to canceled subscriptions) Page 2
What authors want What are authors looking for in a journal? At a basic level, authors want to publish in the highest impact journal possible in the shortest amount of time. Not a lot of data on this topic are available, but two studies provide some insights. o Ian Rowlands and David Nicholas surveyed more than 5,500 researchers in 2005 and found the following were most important to the researchers when choosing a journal: Reputation of the journal Readership Impact Factor Speed of publication Reputation of the editorial board o We also surveyed over 2,500 international researchers (Mudrak, 2013) and identified the top three things that they would like journals to do to simplify the publication process: Provide a template for manuscript formatting Suggest other journals that may be a better fit Create an easy process for pre-submission inquiries Journal Development Framework Page 3
1. Journal Mission and Vision Initial questions: o What should the name of your journal be? o What is the mission of your journal? o What is the scope of your journal? o Who will be the target audience? o What will make the journal unique for the field? Journal name o Choose a name in English that can easily be remembered o It must reflect the mission and scope o Search your JCR category for journals that have similar names; keep yours unique o Authors tend to choose journals with field-specific names such as Academic Dentistry rather than journals with a country name or derivative in the title. Journal mission o What is the purpose of your journal and what does your journal hope to achieve? When writing your mission statement, you can use sentences like for the advancement of knowledge, the publication of new trends in research, etc. It should be clear, concise and free of jargon What is the scope of your journal? o Try to keep the scope broad enough to ensure a sufficient number of submissions o The scope should not be so narrow that it causes lack of interest among authors; thus it should be broad enough to interest a variety of researchers o A multidisciplinary approach can be of help when a larger range of authors, editors, and readers are needed o Try to find a space for your journal that has not yet been occupied Who will be the target audience? o Figuring the breadth of your journal will help you decide how to market your journal A Latin America-based journal? An international journal? Languages required for the journal What will make the journal unique for the field? o A specific type of research o Specific animal research o Specific materials and methods o Scientific knowledge of a specific area that has not yet been addressed o Perform reconnaissance to see what other journals are doing Search for other journals in the Thomson Reuters Master Journal List (http://ipscience.thomsonreuters.com/mjl/) Page 4
Search for journals publishing articles similar to those you publish using JournalGuide (www.journalguide.com) o Perform a SWOT (strengths/weakness/opportunities/threats) analysis to help guide your most important areas for improvement o Internal a profile of your target audience o Website Aims & Scope, mission statement, journal name 2. Leadership Organizational Chart o Ensure an understanding of the organization roles and decision-making powers A clear structure will provide an institutional record Roles and responsibilities o Editor-in-Chief (EIC) The Editor-in-Chief is the face of the journal and has the final responsibility for all operations and policies The Editor-in-Chief can overrule reviewers and editors o Associate Editor (AE) Looks over manuscripts for selection Finds reviewers for the journal Advises the Editor-in-Chief on the acceptance or rejection of manuscripts based on reviewers decisions Helps prepare journal volumes for publication Corrects, revises, and adapts manuscripts for publication o Managing Editor (ME) Senior member of a publication management team Oversees and coordinates the publication s editorial activities (in the US) Manages budget, staffing, and scheduling of a publication (in the UK) May oversee a group of the publisher s journals o Editorial Assistant Day-to-day e-mail responses to authors questions Keeps track of the peer review process Provides quality control for the peer review process o Editorial Board Consulting committee Provides advice to the Editor-in-Chief on manuscripts and reviewers Help to develop policies Page 5
Usually formed by researchers from various countries of origin Commonly used to attract high-quality manuscripts to the journal The reputation of the editorial board will be instrumental in getting the journal indexed Keep the editorial board as a rotation, this will help avoid overstays from editors who are not keeping up with the journal s mission o Internal organizational chart, definitions of roles and responsibilities o Website contact information for editorial staff, CV or bios for editors 3. Journal Strategy Financial plan o Author fees are a common method of funding open access (OA) journals (this is called gold OA), particularly in the scientific, technical and medical (STM) fields. Much of the research in these areas is grant funded, and most granting agencies allow the use of grant funds to cover author publication fees. o Institutional memberships are a less common but parallel strategy to author fees. o Selling advertising space on the journal s web site is another strategy for generating income. A number of companies provide context-sensitive advertising that is relatively easy to add to the journal s web site and provides appropriate advertisements that tend to be of interest to the readers. o International funding agencies are also becoming increasingly interested in supporting OA journals. o Finally, many journals use a specific funding source such as a university to provide publishing free of charge to authors and readers (so-called platinum OA; Solomon and Björk, 2012). Business plan o Should all journal operations be run in house? Would outsourcing certain aspects of running the journal make better financial sense? Should you approach a commercial publisher about a partnership for them to run your journal? o Internal business/financial plan o Website clear description of fees (if any), transparency about sponsorship 4. Editorial Policies Proper guidelines help ensure that there are no misunderstandings about how the journal will be operated and provide an institutional memory for the journal over time. Page 6
One major decision centers on the type of peer review that will occur at your journal: o Double-blind o Single-blind o Collaborative peer review (allowing reviewers to discuss the manuscript with each other and the editor) o Blind review with comments published o Open review (authors and reviewers know each other s identities often paired with the publication of reviewer comments) o Post-publication review (detailed comments from peers after the article is published online) Editorial policy documents for readers and authors o Clearly specify your journal s policies on your web site. Authors prefer journals for which they can easily access appropriate policies. o Policies directed to readers Reuse rights How to address conflicts and complaints o Policies directed to authors Submission of manuscripts Funding body policies Submission fees Page charges and charges for printing figures in color Publishing costs Publishing ethics and plagiarism Ethical treatment of animals and or humans Authorship Conflicts of interest Duplicate publication Volumes/issues Type of content authors are permitted to submit Creative Commons o Offers licenses with a variety of options for acceptable use and other requirements for the material o Provides widely used licenses that represent an excellent choice for managing the licensing aspect of publishing a journal o Internal acceptance criteria and target percentage, licensing plan o Website editorial policies (acceptance criteria, pre-submission inquiries, authorship and ethics, conflicts of interest, appeals and retractions, copyright/licensing, etc.) Page 7
5. Authors Providing key details to potential authors is a great way to entice them to submit a manuscript. Highlight the services that you provide, but also explain your expectations. Services to authors o Peer review o Copyediting o Typesetting/final version layout o Suggesting manuscript services or other journals (if necessary) o Verifying figure files o Sharing published papers Expectations of authors o Following formatting guidelines o Returning revisions in a timely manner o Adherence to standard publication ethics (no duplication publication, image manipulation or plagiarism) Manuscript format and structure o Consider developing a template that authors can use to format their manuscripts o Clarify any differences between the requirements for the initial submission and the postacceptance version (if any) o Offer files for references manager software that accurately reflect your preferred style o Use visual aids and concise language o Put key data (such as requirements for figures) in a table o Minimal is best mention only those features that are absolutely critical o Internal threshold for returning manuscripts to authors for correction before review (i.e., for poor writing or lack of proper ethics statements) o Website instructions for authors (including manuscript and figure formats) 6. Reviewers Finding good reviewers is increasingly difficult, leading to experimentation in the area of peer review. Be sure to have a good plan for attracting strong reviewers and helpful information to provide your reviewers before and after they submit a review. Peer-review policy o You will have to write guidelines for the peer review process and the selection of peer reviewers. Put your guidelines for reviewers online to provide transparency and generate confidence in your authors o Give feedback after a review is submitted. Was it thorough enough or too harsh? Page 8
Keep your peer review process as fast as possible. Authors begin to get frustrated if the process takes more than one month. Acknowledge your reviewers. It helps them gain credit for their work. o Internal peer review workflow, plans for potential disagreement among editors/reviewers, plans to reward or recognize reviewers o Website peer review policies (criteria, instructions for reviewers), reviewer acknowledgments? 7. Technology Journal management software o Open source journal management systems Open Journal Systems (http://pkp.sfu.ca/?q=ojs) Scholastica (https://scholasticahq.com/) DPubs Digital Publishing Systems (http://dpubs.org/) Drupal (http://drupal.org/project/ejournal) HyperJournal (http://www.hjournal.org/) Lodel (http://www.lodel.org/) Topaz (http://www.topazproject.org/trac/wiki) o The Scholarly Exchange (http://www.scholarlyexchange.org) provides hosting and journal management software as well as backup services. Archiving o Archiving keeps the content of your journal elsewhere and will assure you can access that content independently of the journal web site when needed PORTICO charges libraries for a journal s content in the event that something happens to the journal s site (http://www.portico.org) Controlled Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe (CLOCKSS) (http://www.clockss.org/) will release all of the content as open access content in the event that your content is lost o Internal technology plans (workflow software, website hosting, e-mail server, mobile functionality) o Website instructions or FAQs for submitting a manuscript 8. Content Production Work on the journal s logo, color scheme and article layout o Find a unique look that still feels scholarly Page 9
If you are planning to attract an international audience, ensure that your articles are published in high-quality English o Handle proofreading yourself o Outsource language editing o Recommend resources for authors to use o Internal workflow for final version, plan for copyediting, design/layout of final product o Website highlight key features of final version, describe copyediting system or recommend editing providers 9. Discoverability What channels will be used to direct research to your content? o The International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) is an eight-digit number that uniquely identifies serial publications; it will help people find your journal, and it helps libraries manage and promote the journal. The ISSN can be obtained free of charge from a local ISSN center (http://www.issn.org/) o CrossRef (http://www.crossref.org/) is the official Digital Object Identifier (DOI) registration agency for scholarly journal articles. The DOI is another standardized code given to each article in a journal, allowing libraries, citation indexes, and the publishing industry to discover your content. Having a DOI will help avoid any problems associated with keeping track of different versions of a paper as it moves from an accepted proof to a fully typeset copy (http://www.fcla.edu/~pcaplan/jwp/doi_1.pdf) Indexing services help authors gauge the strength of your journal. Find indexes that matter to your authors and start the process of getting your journal accepted. Tell authors about indexes that you have applied to. Build your journal to be crawled by systems like Google Scholar (http://www.google.com/intl/en/scholar/inclusion.html) o Internal strategy for inclusion in desired indexes o Website list of indexes, list of conferences attended 10. Marketing Professional networking is the most effective means of getting the word out about your journal o Conferences o Listservs/announcements by societies o Direct contact with leading scientists in your field Page 10
Social media is another great way to share the content from your journal o Engage in social media directly. Tweet or post new articles and interact personally with readers. o Let authors share their own work on social media with share buttons or the ability to send e-mail links. o Internal marketing plan, sales plan (if subscription based) o Website ways for authors to share content (social media, e-mail) References 1. Rowlands I., Nicholas, D. (2005). Scholarly communication in the digital environment: the 2005 CIBER survey of journal author behaviour and attitudes. Aslib Proceedings 57(6): 481-497. 2. Mudrak B. (2013) Understanding the needs of international authors. Learned Publishing 26(2): 139-147. 3. Solomon D., Björk. B-C. (2012). A study of open access journals using article processing charges. JASIS&T 63(8): 1485-1495. 4. Schmidt P. 2010 New Journals, Free Online, Let Scholars Speak Out 5. Stranack K. 2008 Starting a New Scholarly Journal in Africa 6. Huggett S. 2006 Impact Factor Ethics for Editors 7. AydingÖz U. 2010 Ways to improve a journal s impact factor in the online publication era 8. Institute of the Future 2002 Core Scholarly Information Tasks and e-journal Features: Expanded Edition 9. Stranack K. 2006 Getting Found, Staying Found, Increasing Impact Page 11