Transcript Experience with an alternate engineering journal by Charles Steele Stanford University ASEE 19 June 2006 11/6/2015

Experience with an
alternate
engineering journal
by Charles Steele
Stanford University
ASEE 19 June 2006
11/6/2015
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Presentation summary
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20 years with IJSS – Pergamon and
Elsevier
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Parting of the ways 2004 - treat editors
the same way as librarians
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Enlightenment with reading web pages
about the library situation- shame for
having served Elsevier so long
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Search for new publisher of new journal
JoMMS (Journal of Mechanics of
Materials and Structures) 2005
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Budding success with MSP
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Alternative Forms of
Scholarly Communication
4. Competitively priced journals
Machine Learning Journal
Publisher: Kluwer
Price: $1050/year
Number of defecting editorial board members in 2001: 40
Journal of Machine Learning Research
Est. 2001, with help from SPARC
Publisher: MIT Press
Price: $195/year
One of 16 alternative journals supported in part by SPARC –
“motivated by service to the research community rather than by
profit.”
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Source: SPARC web site and Ted Bergstrom’s Journal Pricing Page
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Alternative Forms of
Scholarly Communication 2
4. Competitively priced journals
International Journal of Solids and Structures
Publisher: Elsevier
Price: $7000/year
Number of defecting editorial board members in 2005: 21 of 23
(also founder George Herrmann)
Journal of Mechanics of Materials and Structures
Est. 2005, with no help from SPARC
Publisher: Mathematical Sciences Publishers
Price: $500/year
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International Journal of
Solids and Structures
Founded by verbal agreement between
Robert Maxwell (Pergamon) and
George Herrmann - editor 1964-1984
CRS- editor 1985 - 2005
1991 Pergamon sold to Elsevier
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Submissions per year
JoMMS
Elsevier
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Pages and Cost IJSS
JoMMS 2006
pages
Cost
$500
Elsevier
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Subscription Cost per Page
JoMMS
cost
Production cost
(Ted Bergstrom)
Elsevier
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Impact Factor
3
2.5
IJSAS
IJ Eng Sci
JMPS
ASME - J Appl Mech
IJ Num Meth Eng
JSV
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
1996
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1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
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J Applied Mechanics IF 0.75
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IJ Plasticity IF 4.03
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Downloads 2003
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JMPS 82,000
IJ of Fatigue 115,000
IJSS 190,000
European J. Mechanics A/Solids 18,000
IJ Pressure Vessels and Piping 40,000
Mechanics of Materials 50,000
IJ Plasticity 50,000
IJ Mechanical Sciences 50,000
IJ Impact Engineering 70,000
Wear 217,000
Tribology International 60,000
Cost to non subscriber $70 !!!
Apparently in response to JoMMS,
IJSS now has 2 years free e-access
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Lancet publisher scathing
about university funding in
UK
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Friday February 18, 2005, The Guardian
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The state of university funding in the UK is "unacceptable"
and the government must act to preserve the global
reputation of British academic institutions, the chief
executive of media group Reed Elsevier said yesterday.
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The comments from Sir Crispin Davis came as the AngloDutch publisher of the Lancet and Variety predicted a
uniformly strong performance across its four divisions in
2005. (Reed Elsevier profit ~ $2 billion in 2004)
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Journal pricing, LISU for Oxford
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Current policy issues
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“The American Anthropological Association's
ignorant opposition of Open Access”
Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006
(FRPAA)
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SPARC
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What is SPARC?
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SPARC®, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic
Resources Coalition, is an alliance of universities, research
libraries, and organizations. The coalition was an initiative
of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) started in
1997 to be a constructive response to market dysfunctions
in the scholarly communication system. These dysfunctions
have reduced dissemination of scholarship and crippled
libraries. SPARC serves as a catalyst for action, helping to
create systems that expand information dissemination and
use in a networked digital environment while responding to
the needs of academe. Leading academic organizations
have endorsed SPARC.
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House of Commons Science &
Technology Select Committee
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The Committee concludes that the current model for scientific publishing is
unsatisfactory. An increase in the volume of research output, rising prices and static
library budgets mean that libraries are struggling to purchase subscriptions to all the
scientific journals needed by their users.
The Report recommends that all UK higher education institutions establish institutional
repositories on which their published output can be stored and from which it can be
read, free of charge, online. It also recommends that Research Councils and other
Government funders mandate their funded researchers to deposit a copy of all of their
articles in this way.
The Report criticises the UK Government for failing to respond to issues surrounding
scientific publications in a coherent manner. The Committee is not convinced that it
would be ready to deal with any changes to the publishing model and calls for the
formulation of a strategy as a matter of urgency.
The preservation of digital material is an expensive process that poses a significant
technical challenge. The Report recommends that the British Library receives sufficient
funding to enable it to carry out this work. Government needs to start work on new
regulations for the legal deposit of non-print publications immediately.
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Cell Press
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i) decline to review manuscripts for Cell
Press journals,
ii) resign from Cell Press editorial
boards,
iii) cease to submit papers to Cell Press
journals, and
iv) talk widely about Elsevier and Cell
Press pricing tactics and business
strategies.
Peter Walter and Keith Yamamoto, 2003
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Resolutions
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Very strong faculty resolutions from several
institutions, including Stanford
Result-- nothing changes
It seems that engineers are particularly oblivious
to the library situation. Examples:
Colleague, editor of a Sage journal costing
$2/page: “I do not pay attention to that.”
In 20 years of IJSS only two times a reviewer
declined on the grounds of providing free work
for Elsevier.
Very prominent people accepted positions on the
new board of IJSS
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Stanford Engineering
Library
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50 Journals cut in 2004 (20
Elsevier)
Fewer than 25 uses/year
Or cost/use > $75
Savings $77,676
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Frustration!!
High Wire Press
SPARC
Sage
World Scientific
Duke University Press
Cambridge University Press
Finally- Mathematical Sciences Publishers
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JoMMS with MPS
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* High quality in content and form
* no page charge to author, with color figures encouraged;
* free universal access one year past publication, (back access)
and right away for Volume 1 (open access);
* support for optional non print material such as sound, movies,
animations, source software, and embedded data behind plots
and tables;
* downloadable PDF files with full links for cross-references
and bibliographical items, including frequently updated links to
other publications;
* careful typesetting, copy editing, and figure handling;
* a license-to-publish model rather than a transfer-of-copyright
model, so that authors keep control of their creation;
* a low subscription price that will not grow and price/page to
drop as the subscriber base expands.
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Cover
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Computing a medieval wall
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Crack in rotor
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End
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Machine Learning (Kluwer)
IF 3.1
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J Machine Learning Research
(MIT) IF 4.03
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JMPS IF 2.76
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IJSS IF 1.3
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