Category — Editor-Themed Sessions

 (under her permission)

Presenter: Jeanne Dobgenski, Scientific Initiation Program Manager, Anhanguera Educational S. A.

Friday, July 10, 2009, 9:30 pm-10:30 pm. SFU Harbour Centre. Room 2250

Session Overview

Session Abstract

 Instituto de Pesquisas Aplicadas e Desenvolvimento Educacional (AESA)

 Anhanguera Educational S. A. (AESA) is the largest postsecondary educational institution in Brazil. AESA launched the integration project its Scientific Initiation Program (PIC) and Professor training program (PICD) with Open Journal System (OJS). PIC is for undergraduate student scholarship program dedicated to develop scientific skills with high graduation effectiveness. Students submit their paper through OJS. Then, the PIC manager sorts out documents according to the categories and sends to reviewers. These reviewers are advisors of the students in the same areas. Therefore, the students (authors) can have chance the report to be reviewed by other than their own advisor. 156 authors and 115 reviewers currently enrolled. The reviewers send the papers to the manager again with recommendation for the paper. With this process, the authors have chance to edit their papers and have information how to write a scholarly research-oriented paper.

Following is the workflow chart of the research project process (from Dobgenski with permission):

The PIC operational process is divided into the following 5 stages:

1. Research Project → 2. Partial Report → 3. Partial Article →

4. Final Article (FA) → 5. Student Yearbook (SY)

This whole Anhanguera´s PIC management cycle takes a year. After getting through all the process until stage 5, Student Yearbook is available in OJS.

Following is the workflow chart of the student yearbook process (from Dobgenski with permission):

 Dobgenski commented AESA uses OJS not only to gather information but also to give students chance to publish their own research. In that way, the integration PIC program with OJS is very practical since it gives chance students to receive feedback of their writing and also produce their own papers. Undergraduate students used to have a role as an information receiver rather than an information producer, but this program helps students publish their own paper as a producer.

AESA also uses OJS for professors training programs (PICD) of which process is:

1. Professor ask for support/budget by application form

2. Campus Director authorizes the application

3. Application’s form is sent to PICD agency

4. PICD agency analyzes and returns final agreement

5. Professor receives agreement confirmation

6. The process is terminated

The session of Dobgenski showed the practical use how OJS facilitates academic and institutional programs. Dobgenski, a manager of AESA, mentioned through her e-mail the management of documents and users associated with an improvement program could become a quite challenging problem. There are a huge number of specific constraints interrelated with scheduling tasks, publishing rules and norms conformance. It is necessary to adopt computer-aid system to keep track of all the information workflow and to guarantee these constraints satisfaction. OJS was very useful tool to allow the manager to setup a minimal-path procedure for electronic publishing.  The OJS web system permits create, manage and interact with a huge community around these programs. In 2009, Anhanguera’s PIC received more than 300 project submissions. The presenter emphasized OJS helps run PIC and PICD programs smoothly with a small number of faculty members (4 professors, 1 computer systems analyst, 1 administration assistant).

The Anhanguera’s experience shows that the OJS software permits a considerable spread community formed by students, professors, researchers, managers and academic decision-makers get organized and integrated to improve these programs.

Related Links

Anhanguera Educational S. A.: http://www.unianhanguera.edu.br/anhanguera/

Open Journal System: http://pkp.sfu.ca/?q=ojs

Presenter: Roberta Pellizzoli   

Friday, July 10, 2009, 11 pm-12 pm. SFU Harbour Centre. Room 2250

Who is the presenter?

• Contract professor, Political and Economic Geography of sub-Sahara Africa at University of Bologna, Faculty of Political Science
• Editorial Administrator, Universitas Forum: International Journal on Human Development and International Cooperation
• Managing editor at Afriche e Orienti

 Session Overview

    Session Abstract

What is Universitas Forum?

Universitas Forum is peer-reviewed international electronic journal on human development and international cooperation. The aim of Universitas Forum is to offer critical analyses of current approaches to international development cooperation and practice-based research concerning global and local human development such as poverty, health, water shortage, education, inequity, social exclusion, to name a few (see Human Development Resource (HDR net) for more information). The journal is conceived as a tool for encouraging the systematization of local experiences, with the contribution of local journalists and academics. First volume with four issues was published in 2008, and a further three issues are planned for 2009. The journal provides four languages: English, Spanish, French, and Italian. The full text of articles is in the original language, while abstracts are translated. Universitsas Forum is produced by the Universitas programme of the ART initiative. The journal is sponsored by UNOPS.

 What is the role of Universitas Forum?

Swartz (2008), the coordinatior of the ART Universitas Programme and of the editorial committee of Universitas Forum, argues that previous development model such as globalization or capitalism createdscompetition and social exclusion rather than cooperation. Moreover, unbalanced distribution of resources and unequal opportunity to contribute between Northern and Southern actors are also barriers on human development. Therefore, an alternative model on human development is urgent. 

Universitas Forum was produced under the goal of following:

1.     Enhancing resources of local communities and their human development potential

2.     Mutual respect and learning, development cooperation of knowledge between North and South

3.     A systematization of the experiences of the many actors involved in human development practice

4.     Increasing opportunities for accessing and disseminating knowledge of researchers, policy makers or practitioners on human development 

However, according to Pellizzoli, the presenter, there are some difficulties the journal is facing:

•          Arouse the interest of development practitioners

•          Link theoretical knowledge with socially embedded research and practice

•          Diversify audience (geographical, institutional, etc)‏

•          Involve local researchers in order to increase the visibility of views from the South

•          Increase the number of readers

•          Promoting the idea of a public right to knowledge

In addition, she also stated the challenges of Open journal system (Open-Source Publication software of the Universitas Forum for open access). She argued that to improve democratic access to OJS knowledge, English should not be assumed the standard language when dealing with a multilingual journal. Not everyone is a native English speaker, and the fact that English is the default language makes navigating the site more difficult for those who are not native English speakers and not highly computer literate. Although OJS provides several languages (e.g., Chinese, Dutch, Farsi, Japanese, Spanish, etc.) other than English, poor translation is an issue. Moreover, those who do not have high computer skill may be discouraged to use the system.

Therefore, Pellizzoli suggested OJS should be improved, especially in translation, as a multilingual journal. Besides, small grants for researchers from the South should be given to promote systematization of innovative practices and experiences. She also urged that networking with other OJS publications (see here for more open journals) is crucial. Finally, more workshops should be available to create knowledge on human development.

Related Links

Afriche e Orienti: http://www.comune.bologna.it/iperbole/africheorienti/english/rivista.html

Art initiative: http://www.art-initiative.org/

Human Development Resource: http://www.yorku.ca/hdrnet/index.asp

Open journal system: http://pkp.sfu.ca/?q=ojs

Universitas Forum: http://www.universitasforum.org/index.php/ojs/index

UNOPS: http://www.unops.org/english/Pages/default.aspx

Reference

Swartz, S. (2008). Knowledge for human development, Universitas Forum, 1(1). Also available at http://www.universitasforum.org/index.php/ojs/article/view/15/48

Session: Scholarly publishing in Africa: the online potential, the online challenge

Presenter: Samuel Smith-Esseh (University of British Columbia)

Abstract: To improve our current largely anecdotal understanding of scientific publishing in Africa, this empirical study was conducted, involving active participants within the scholarly community – authors, editors, publishers, graduate students, faculty, scientists, librarians, IT staff and university administrators. The data is reviewed in light of the opportunities arising from technological progress, particularly the Internet … and how this speaks to the all important issue of expanding knowledge resources in Africa to the benefit of the global scholarly community.

Overview

Smith’s presentation introduced findings from a quantitative study into journal publishing in Africa, where African journal editors and publishing teams gathered at several universities throughout Africa to contribute as research participants. The numbers illustrate the many challenges which characterize the academic journal publishing environment in Africa. Smith concluded that a key priority is to look at the issue of cost: there are a variety of economic models improvised in Africa, but no standard effective model in use. Despite the financial constraints, there are also promising developments, namely, the early impacts resulting from the advent of the internet, as shown for instance, by high numbers of online journal reading and the cost-saving opportunities presented by online publication.

Snapshot of the Issues

– African scholarship is poorly distributed and poorly assessed

– A major problem lies in the regularity of journal publication: there are frequently breaks in publication schedules (75% of journals in the study have had a break in publication). The three top reasons for breaks included:

1. Financial constraints

2. Perception of human resources

3. Lack of article submissions

– A common category for journals included ‘campus-wide’, journals that multi-disciplinary, circulated within a university, because the university is not able to sustain departmental or disciplinary journals.

– Factors in authors’ choice of which journal to publish include appropriate subject scope (83.%), institutional legitimization (77.8%), international journal (68.7%), prestige of journal (44.4%); others.

– Local publishing is greatly impacted by the northward-focus of African authors. There is pressure on African academics to publish internationally, thus local publishing industries are neglected.

– Editorship in Africa is male-dominated.

– There are no professional training  opportunities or systematic training in editorial management and in the peer review process. Some other challenges in reviewing journals include an overburdened academic research community and a lack of subject area expertise within some disciplines.

– Many institutions are not buying into the open access for a variety of reasons, which include technical challenges, human resource issues, quality assurance, ideological reasons, economic challenges, and regulatory and policy challenges.

Economic challenges

– Subscription rates simply put journals out of reach of many African scholars: rates are equal to what some professors earn as a salary.

– Most journals depend on university support and are published within the university.

– There is a dependence on international sponsorship

– Print production is very expensive in Africa (highest costs include: staff, printing, postage, editorial expertise, editors’ stipend, photocopying, etc). However, the internet has the potential to greatly minimize some of these costs.

– Connectivity is gradually improving in Africa, yet the cost remains prohibitive.

Where does potential lie?

– Significantly, Smith’s study found the primary incentive for the continued publication of journals when there is no economic incentive to be reputation. There is thus an important level of drive evident, something which can resource further developments.

– There is growth in circulation numbers of scholarly journals.

– There has similarly been a perception among the editors of an increase in submissions (84.4%), while 10.4% perceived a decrease in submissions, and 5.2% were not sure.

– Another study found almost 0% of submissions to African journals came from outside of African countries. However, because of the internet, this study found that that is changing. African journals are becoming more visible. Editors perceived an increased international readership (41.8%).

– AJOL confirmed this finding, when their data was consulted, to confirm what Smith found in his study. AJOL’s geographical distribution of document deliveries shows that people from outside the continent are beginning to read journals published in Africa. There has been a 1,343% increase of readership in Asia over one year.

– Academic reading habits are showing the impact of the internet: online journals had the highest readership among the study participants, suggesting their currency as the main information source for scholars.  

Further Reading:

The Scholarly Journal in the Production and Dissemination of Knowledge on Africa: Exploring Some Issues for the Future (2001) S.A. Adebwole 

African Journals Online: improving awareness and access (2002) D. Rosenberg

Participation in the global knowledge commons (2005) L. Chan and S. Costa

Transforming Access to Research Literature for Developing Countries (2005) B. Kirsop and L. Chan

Presenter: Laura C. Botsford, Assistant to the Editor, Canadian Journal of Sociology, University of Alberta

Time: 4-5 pm, July 9th, 2009

Place: SFU Harbour Centre, Sauder Industries Room 2270

———————————————————————————————

Session Overview

Background

In the early days of the Canadian Journal of Sociology, a great deal of manual work was required to print the journal, from getting galleys to making notes in the margins, to cutting to appropriate size and pasting onto paper sheets, etc. The editors of the journal soon realized that they were susceptible to too many external factors and decided to move to typesetting and a mainframe computer. While this newer technology had its advantages, there were many codes to learn and all that could be seen was the markup language; not the end result. The lack of a preview often created surprises for the editors when the pages were printed. Eventually technology progressed and the journal got some computers with What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) capabilities– but they still had to go through the whole printing process. Dr. Kevin D. Haggerty took over as editor in 2007 and within a few months, decided to go electronic and open access with the journal. While everyone involved had many questions and qualms, they ultimately ‘took the plunge.’

Related Information Re: Printing Processes

Click here for a printing press demonstration on Youtube

A more recent version of the printing press:

(source)

Using the Open Journal System (OJS)

Moving to electronic publishing has reduced many of the traditional problems involved with the printing process and OJS has features that are very helpful, such as its functionality for the second review– the system automatically generates a list of reviewers and filters out those who have already declined in the first review.

However, OJS still poses many problems for users, so patience and technical support is absolutely critical.

Session Questions

Comment: There are currently seventeen journals running on the University of Alberta website, but the Canadian Journal of Sociology has been the most conversive, and questions have really pushed the development of OJS forward.

Question: What was the driving force to move to online and open access? We were becoming aware of the new generation of scholars coming up, and they are expecting to see their info on the internet. Also, printing and mailing is becoming increasingly expensive.

Question: How many copies were being printed prior to moving to electronic form? Answer: 1000

Question: How has converting from print to open access impacted the finances of the journal? Answer: It was a subscription journal, but the journal has been anomalous. We had some money in the bank, and received money from aggregators who have continued to contribute. One of the reasons for moving to open access was that subscriptions were dwindling– libraries were declining because they were lacking space and funding.

Question: Any plans to digitize back files? Answer: Yes. We haven’t tried it yet, but are definitely planning to.

Question: What is your business model? How much does it really cost to run the journal? Revenue stream? etc. Answer: Revenue stream usually from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and aggregators, but we also had money in bank that was invested. We also benefit from non-monetary things that the university provides, such as office space, release time from teaching for Dr. Haggerty, etc.

References

Taking the plunge Haggerty, K.D. (2008). “Taking the plunge: open access at the Canadian Journal of Sociology” Information Research, 13(1) paper 338. [Available at http://InformationR.net/ir/13-1/paper338.html]

Related Links

• Taking the plunge: open access at the Canadian Journal of Sociology
• Canadian Journal of Sociology
• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)
• Open Journal System (OJS)
• University of Alberta
  

July 9, 11:30 AM – Earl and Jennie Lohn Room 7000

Presenter

Glenn M. Hymel, Professor and former Chair of the Department of Psychology at Loyola University New Orleans

Session Abstract

Background

This session covered the development of an online, open access, peer reviewed quarterly: The International Journal of Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork (IJTMB). The journal is intended to support practitioners in the field of complementary & integrative medicine (CIM).

Session Overview

Glenn Hymel (Source)

Professor Glenn Hymel began the session by outlining three objectives for his presentation: (1) to address recent developments and the progress to date of the IJTMB (2) to provide a journal editor’s perspective regarding policy decisions and procedural guidelines in the context of open access publishing (3) to provide a potential model that other independent journals could use. Subsequently, the professor described the journal as an open access, peer reviewed quarterly publication that reflects the Massage Therapy Foundation’s (MTF) mission to promote research, education as well as current best practice in the field of massage and bodywork. The MTF is a non-profit charity, but it does charge its members fees to cover operating costs.

Professor Hymel proceeded to discuss the scope of the IJTMB, which encompasses editorials, research, education, practice sections, commentaries, book reviews and announcements that are relevant to the massage profession. The journal’s board of trustees, comprising an e-Journal committee, an editorial board, an editor in chief and a manuscript review board, have final control of the budget, as well as its membership. The board had a number of key decisions to make during the formative stages of the journal, such as the software to use, the peer review process to follow and the stylistic requirements needed. Ultimately, the trustees agreed to use multi-Med (A Canadian Company) for publishing, a double blind review protocol that includes evaluation from a medical review board and style guidelines consistent CIM and allopathic journals. Lastly, the organisation chose to use creative commons licenses as their copyright policy.

Hymel concluded his presentation by discussing the issue of citation and accreditation. The journal uses the Google Analytics service to obtain quantitative input (web stats) that determines the IJTMB’s impact. The credibility derived from frequent web hits has been hampered by a lack of successful manuscript submissions, which demonstrates a need to make the review process more efficient, improved authorship guidelines, reader input through comment features and more extensive use of supplementary, multi-media files to augment entries. It was also suggested that the journal develop a plug-in “to enable continuing education activities related to journal articles”.

The professor answered a few questions at the end of the period. His responses reaffirmed the IJTMB’s intent to improve its effectiveness, as well as its immediacy by being quicker to release submitted articles between quarterly issues. Hymel hoped that this would increase availability. The professor also explained that that they have had to outsource contracting in order to reduce costs.

Analysis

The point of view of an independent online journal striving to serve its members and gain credibility as a reputable, authoritative resource is a profoundly recurring theme within the open access community. The challenge of balancing costs, yet maintaining a high quality journal is also significant. Furthermore, it is particularly interesting that professor Hymel advocates improved user friendly controls that promote interactivity and a more robust reading experience. The ability of members to possibly change or influence the original document and leave their comments potentially diminishes the reliability of such a publication, which is one of the established goals of the IJTMB. The tension between using the technology in a new and exciting ways, while maintaining traditionally defined authority, is problematic for all online journals. Can this paradox be resolved?

Related Links

The International Journal of Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork

The Massage Therapy Foundation

Loyola University New Orleans

July 9, 11:00 AM – Fletcher Challenge Room 1900

Panellists

Barbara Cohen, Director of Humanitech, University of California, Irvine.  Steering Group, The Open Humanities Press.

Gary Hall, Professor, Media and Performing Arts, Coventry University, UK.  Co-founder of The Open Humanities Press.

Marta Brunner, Librarian for English and American Literature and Comparative Literature at the Charles E. Young Research Library at UCLA

Shana Kimball, Publications Manager in the Scholarly Publishing Office (SPO) at the University of Michigan Library

Session Abstract (Not Applicable)

Logo (source)

Background

This question period followed a series of presentations related to the Open Humanities Press and two libraries that are supporting their new endeavours of producing single monograph titles. The questions from the audience have been quoted as exactly as possible with the condensed responses from the panel provided underneath.

Relevant Sessions

Part 1 – On Open Humanities Press: A Panel Presentation by Members of the OHP Steering Group

Part 2 –  On Library Publishing and the Open Humanities Press: A Panel Presentation by the UCLA Library and the University of Michigan Library’s Scholarly Publishing Office

Session Overview

Question 1: How is the OHP dealing with the lack of representations of many cultures and the issue of concentration of media control, such as Thomson Scientific?

Hall replied that he has “huge problems with Thomson Scientific” because all journals have to be registered with them. Younger, less established researchers, or those who are marginalised, cannot publish due to the prohibitive cost. The high price for translating work into English is also impeding academics of other cultures from gaining their due recognition.

Question 2: How do you establish accreditation when the OHP is creating decentralising and destabilising force? Furthermore, if we are in a stage of transition how do we reassure our scholars about the credibility and reliability of open access journals?

Cohen lead the response of the panellists by asserting that we that we have to cope in times of change. We are still retaining some traditions as we move forward, which Bolter refers to as remediation when one media uses the prestige of another to gain credibility (Bolter, 2001). Cohen further asserts that the goal of OHP was to match print quality online: Now it is to surpass it. Kimball then added that experimental works, such as the liquid novel, provided authors with a wider range of options, which benefits everyone. Brunner contended that we need to enthusiastically embrace these trends in order to ensure innovation. Hall argued that the Press is conscious of forging ahead, but that “it also needs to bring people along with it”. Hall stated that there is a tension that exists between being innovative and reassuring scholars that online journals are credible, authoritative sources.

Question 3: How do we give credit and attribution to original authors? How is the author being redefined?

Hall answered that Wikis are collaborative, but there is software that can track input. Hall is actually disappointed in this scenario given that this is a regression of sorts to old traditional authorship. Academics are becoming increasingly involved in open access because it leads to greater prestige for authorship, but again this aligns with old customs that don’t suit the goals of new media.

Question 4: What are the business models for open access monographs? Is grant money part of this equation?

Cohen agreed that grants are important and that as the OHP moves to the monograph series they will be made available. Kimball answered that Michigan State is exploring new revenue streams, but they are operating on the traditional model of rewarding authorship. Hall added that authors are now paying in many cases. Kimball clarified that new alternatives, such as teaching relief, are needed to be offered to reward “gifts of labour” in this new era. Another idea would be to create graduate fellowships or scholarships to do valuable research assistant work. This would work well in libraries because many unknown collections still haven’t been processed. Hall suggested that we “could shift the library model” so that each one publishes its own work and then freely shares it. He concluded that there is no easy access.

Question 5: What are liquid books?

Hall re-established that liquid books are actually referring back to their original status as conglomerations of knowledge. A liquid is fluid and constantly moving, which is why it is an appropriate description for what books really are.

Analysis

The seminal question during this period exposed the issue of how the OHP has to negotiate the contradictory pressures to succumb to traditional models of academic endorsement in order to gain credibility, as well as to provide a vehicle for innovation, originality and modernisation. Furthermore, a press such as the OHP needs to have a business model in order to cover the costs accrued, which is anathema to the ideals of open access proponents. This tension between open and restricted access, or market oriented and non-profit motives, are creating a dialectic series of synthesises that will eventually lead to the pervasiveness of open access content (Schmidt et al., 2005); however, these changes will likely need to retain some features of the old models in order to maintain legitimacy.

Related Links

Liquid Books

Human Tech (Barbara Cohen)

University of Michigan Scholarly Publishing Office

Open Humanities Press

Gary Hall Discusses His Philosophy with regards to Online Content

References

Bolter, J. D. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Schmidt, K. D., Sennyey, P., & Carstens, T. V. (2005). New roles for a changing environment: Implications of open access for libraries. College & Research Libraries, September, Retrieved July 9, 2009, from http://paws.wcu.edu/kschmidt/publications/CandRL.pdf

July 9, 2009 at 10:30 a.m. SFU Harbour Centre (remote session). Rm. 7000

Susan Murray (Source)

Background

Ms. Susan Murray is a proactive individual working with the African Journals Online (AJOL), a non-profit organization, as the executive director for over two years. Her she academic background is on development economics and she is focused on opening access to information in developing countries such as Africa.

Session Overview

Ms. Murray’s session is a journey from the 1990s to present day focusing on the progression of access to African Journals Online (AJOL) (Session Abstract). She begins with an overview of the journal, followed by the users and stakeholders involved, which she ties in to a comparison of the old and new systems along with the future outlook for AJOL, and  finally she concludes the presentation with a business plan and parting remarks.

(1) Overview of AJOL

Ms. Susan Murray started the presentation with the following quote from Mamphela Ramphele :

“There is no way we can succeed in the eradication of poverty if the developing world is not part of knowledge creation, its dissemination and utilization to promote innovation. Higher education is a critical factor in making this possible and must be part of any development strategy.”

– Mamphela Ramphele (2000)

Ms. Murray goes on to explain the importance of higher education and policies governing such institutes. She indicates that there is a long way to go in terms of sharing and transferring knowledge to the developing worlds, however it must be done and there is harm in not doing so as innovation cannot advance in these developing countries. In Africa the process of dissemination has already begun with AJOL hoping to increase its visibility and accessibility of open journal sources. Currently, AJOL has 350 titles with over 40000 articles (and free metadata) which are a combination of open-access (OA) and subscription based titles that cover majority of the academic spectrum. Ms. Murray pointed out that some of the titles are not found online anywhere else but on AJOL! This shows the exclusivity of some of the titles that are secured by AJOL. In order to join AJOL, Ms. Murray listed the following criteria which must be adhered to – this mostly encourages more of the ‘fringe’ journals to upload their documents for increased visibility:

• Must be original research
• Needs to be peer-reviewed
• All content must be given to AJOL
• Permission must be granted to AJOL
• Content must be published in the African continent

(2) The Stakeholders

It is fascinating to know that as of today, Ms. Murray highlighted the 26 African countries with journals on AJOL (See Figure 1a). Figure 1b is a ‘Google Maps mashup’ which highlights the actual journals (with corresponding links) in a particular country. Ms. Murray exclaimed this is an impressive display along with the number of visits by other continents as illustrated in Figure 2. Africa had the highest percentage of visitors at 32% of the total population who accessed the site, while North America, Asia, and Europe had 23%, 21%, and 20% respectively.

Figure 1a: Distribution of Journals in Africa (used with permission from Ms. Murray)

 

View Map of Africa in a larger map

Figure 2: Visits by continent (used with permission from Ms. S. Murray)

(3) Comparison of old and new systems

After the overview and elaboration of the users and stakeholders of AJOL, Ms. Murray went into the details of the AJOL on OJS 2.2.2. She expressed the benefits of such a partnership with PKP led to better upgrading of the system. She found  that more advanced versions could also be complied and were easier to upload which allowed for more capabilities in the platform that were not possible before. Figure 3 shows flowchart of the software and resources used ending with final product of the Open Journal Systems coded through the PHP scripting language using MySQL as the database management tool in the APACHE web browser run from the Linux operating system.

Figure 3: Software and Resources (created by Pam Gill)

A comparison of the new and old system is shown in Figure 4. The new approach is useful for all parties involved and is an excellent search tool with a new look and feel. Currently, as of July 2009, journals now manage their own AJOL pages in terms of the workflow management. In the future, Ms. Murray envisions that journals will be able to host their own versions of OJS on the PKP harvester which acts as a metadata aggregator. The newer versions will include a statistics package and offline plug-ins when connectivity is interrupted. The offline plug-in option will be crucial for users living in remote areas. Eventually, Ms. Murray envisions all journals being independent and managing their own pages.

Figure 4: Comparison Chart of Old and New Systems (created by Pam Gill)

To conclude her presentation, Ms. Murray placed great emphasis on the need for the flow of global information from the North to the South (Evans and Reimer, 2009). She stressed the implementation of a new business plan that would allow journals to consider OA as a more viable possibility via AJOL/PKP. The full OJS functionality on AJOL has already made a huge difference as discussed earlier as open source software (OSS) has matured considerably. To summarize Ms. Murray ended her presentation one two key points to promote and continue the dissemination of literature in developing countries. First she brought forth the importance of carefully selecting the best tool that will take into account the needs of the users. Next, she advised to carefully align yourself with partners that you trust and who will support your initiatives for the right reasons. The following quote from Ms. Susan Murray herself summarizes these points:

“Relationships and communication are still the drivers of success, the technological tools are just the vehicle.”

– Susan Murray (2009)

This quote from Ms. Murray is used to illustrate that the technology can help propel the dissemination process in varying capacities. Technology depends on the specifications and limitations of the  hardware and software. Yet, at the end of the day, relationships with others are the most important in terms of communicating, working collaboratively sharing ideas, which will ultimately lead to the success (or failure) of your goals and aspirations.

Questions from the audience asked at Ms. Murray’s session:

Question: Is AJOL published in other languages (referring to Figure 1 of African map from Susan’s PowerPoint slide)? Does AJOL have plans to bring more non-English journals to the portal?

Answer: Yes, we are hoping to introduce this to Francophone countries by starting the process of translating to French. So there will be an English/French option. We have a few journals published in Portuguese, Arabic. If we have a journal that is online (and space is NOT a problem) then we can publish in a local, indigenous and international language. Then at the same time research can be read by the local community and broadly by the rest of the world. This will increase readership and the journal will have met the needs to satisfy the best of both worlds.

Related Links

Conference attended by Susan Murray

• Africa Days for Librarians 2007
• Berlin 6 Open Access Conference 2008

Software/Sites

• African Journals Online
• OJS 2.2.2 Download
• PKP Open Archives Harvester: free metadata indexing system

References

Evans, J.A, & Reimer, J. (2009). Open Access and Global Participation in Science . Science. 323, 1025

Murray, S. (2009). Open journal systems (OJS) software as used by African journals online (AJOL). PKP Scholarly Publishing Conference 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-09, from http://pkp.sfu.ca/ocs/pkp/index.php/pkp2009/pkp2009/paper/view/216

Presenters: Steven Andrew Plato II and Andrew James Wyman (remotely), David Solomon in-house

July 10th, 2009 at 3:30 p.m.

Read the Abstract

Background info

Steve Plato and Andrew Wyman are third-year medical students from Michigan State University who saw a need in the literature for a dedicated place for medical students to publish their work and founded The Medical Student Research Journal (MSRJ) in 2007.  They are due to publish the first issue this fall.

Session Overview

The session got off to a rough start with a few technical difficulties (due to new too-loud speakers in the meeting room at Simon Fraser University).  The students gave the presentation from their editorial room in Michigan via Adobe Connect Pro. They use this to connect with the many geographically diverse authors/editors/faculty associated with their journal.  The image, Powerpoint and voice are very clear.  This is an exciting software tool for all distributed learning models.

The students went on to explain that they started the journal to fill a gap.  Most students have extensively researched their chosen field of specialty throughout medical school, but often do not know how or where to publish their work.  Whereas 60-100% (depending on specialty) of medical students matching to their first-choice residency stated they had extensive research in their field, the proportion of those that had published was as low as 35% for some specialties.   MSRJ is peer-reviewed, authored and edited entirely by medical students which they hope will be the go to journal for medical students to publish that work.

This project was started at the Michigan State University but the creators hope to reach medical students throughout the US as well as internationally.  THE MSRJ uses Open Journal Systems (OJS) and Creative Commons licencing to ensure communication and availability of publication to all medical students.  This project is similar to a one started a few years earlier by the same institution (MSU) in a graduate biotechnology course (see session blog from this conference) however on a much quicker timeline, around 28 days!

OJS has been very helpful for the med students as it helps to facilitate their multi-location system, has low overhead and allows them rolling publication with minimal delays. They also like the management tools that help to guide novice editors (reminders/checklists) to make the process simple. OJS also tends to being in a larger readership.

Faculty

Faculty assure quality peer-review. Students are trained by faculty in critical appraisal, principles of scientific writing and academic integrity. They are also able to review a mock article and can compare their reviews to similar good and poor examples to learn to become a better reviewer. Faculty also provide guidance on sustainability and establish good practice in mentees (more hands-on and one-on-one time with people who know the literature the best).  The students all go through an online training module, from the Annals of Emergency Medicine, prior to starting as well.

Usually one faculty will mentor 3-4 students per article. This helps less experienced reviewers in specific fields. They also provide feedback and guidance on where a review may be lacking. Students can then re-review and submit, then the editor decides to accept, accept with revisions or decline the article.

Sustainability plans?

Many other journals before this have struggled with longevity.  MSRJ have instituted a student replacement policy (juniors that will take over when the current editors are done) and training sessions for editors which serve as quality control.  In addition a letter from the Dean will be placed into the student file for encouragement to participate and to continue the job. Faculty are also rewarded by recognition in published material as well as a formal letter to their respective Departmental Chair. An annual report with statistics on publications is also planned for accountability

Finances?

The students plan for this journal to be a free or very low cost venture. All labour is by students or faculty. There is a minimal cost for the website host, however their major cost is copyediting, which they hope will be eliminated by using university resources.   XML generation is also a marginal expense as is website development.

Benefits

The students feel the benefits are quite clear. They build experience in scientific writing and editing as well as get a head start on publications for their career. It is also strongly beneficial for those students doing research outside academic centres such as rural and distributed sites.

Since Open Journal System (OJS) has become a forerunner in educational resources, many other institutions have been able to start similar projects, with one just ready to launch this fall here at my home institution, UBC.  The UBC Medical Journal will provide medical students with a forum to publish their research work that previously had no definitive place for publication.

Questions from the audience

1.  I understand medical school is an intense experience. Do you have to sacrifice other parts of the educational experience to participate?

While it is true it is intense, but one thing about medical school is it does allow you to do things outside of school. Most students are involved in extracurricular activities already and 60-100% already involved in research. There will be some sacrifice, but usually that would be less time for research projects (i.e. one instead of two). The time intensity of the reviewer part of the job is not significant. Students only review one article at a time. There is a base here already, but it does take away time, hopefully that time is well spent.

2.  Are the training materials you used publically available?

Yes they are online in the Annals of Emergency Medicine Journal. They have a great online flash based training process that we used.

3.  Do you plan on only accepting articles from MSU or do you plan to open the journal up to other universities?

This journal will be open to med student/residents around the world once it is started. MSU is unique in their distributed plan in the states. Right now, you can submit from anywhere, but we hope to expand reviewers across the country.

Related links

The Medical Student Research Journal

Andrew@msrj.chm.msu.edu
Steven@msrj.chm.msu.edu
dsolomon@msu.edu

Presenter: Thomas Abraham

Session Cancelled due to travel difficulties

Open Access Journal Publishing in the Agricultural Sciences (full pdf. presentation submitted by Thomas Abraham through email to John Willinsky)

Background

Work focuses on Scientific Journal Publishing in India; for the promotion of electronic publishing; developing OAI-PM

Related Links

Scientific Journal Publishing in India (SJPI)

Article: Barriers to electronic publishing of scholarly journals from India: Findings from (SJPI)

PKP 2007 conference information

Presenter: Pierre de Villiers

July 10th, 2009 at 2:00 p.m

(Used with permission from Pierre de Villiers)

Read the Session Abstract

Webstream

Background info

As a new discipline to Africa, Family Medicine needed a forum to communicate scholarly work throughout Africa.  Ten countries in the neighbouring area of the Sub-Sahara joined together and through academic support and affiliation with well known academic associations started a new journal, The African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine (PHCFM).  Their mandate was to ensure 20-30 publications were accepted and published per year.  It delves into family medicine for the primary health care giver using African context.  They use Open Journal Systems, and Creative Commons licence to ensure accessibility over the ten participating countries.  They have multiple citations in Google scholar.  The editor-in-chief is Professor Gboyega A Ogunbanjo from the University of Limpopo, South Africa.  He is a specialist family physician.

The journal is mainly supported by the Flemish Inter-university Council (VLIR), a department for University Cooperation for Development, through the project VLIR-ZEIN 2006 PR320, but also has local support from Africa as well.

View Participating Partners in the new African journal, PHCFM in a larger map

Session Overview

Dr. de Villiers starts this session describing why he started this new journal.  He has been the editor of the South African Academy of Family Practice/Primary Care journal (SAAFP) for the past ten years (the journal has fifty years of experience).  Since that time, South Africa (SA) has made family practice into a specialty and now there is a great emphasis on primary health, care not only in SA but all over Africa.

He recognized many problems in communicating the knowledge of Family Practice in Africa:

• There were no full African journals at the time
• Most research was published in non-African-run journals
• It was difficult for African scholars to get published

SAAFP went online in 2005 as the first journal in Africa to do so.  Open access to the journal started in 2006 and saw a dramatic effect on increased submissions to this journal as well as those articles sent to NEJM.  Submissions were too numerous by far to publish solely in SAAFP and the need for a new journal was finally realized.

Once Dr. de Villiers decided to start this journal (PHCFM), he had standards he needed the journal to commit to.

1. Published in English
2. Peer reviewed
3. Open access
4. Onlne – for global visibility
5. Rolling publication – articles could be published as they became available
6. DOI – Crossref
7. Ability to print on demand at end of every year
8. Copyright – would use creative commons licencing to keep it open
9. Credible Editorial board – Large African component as well as international made for highly visible editors

On November 18th, 2008, the official launch was in Kampala (picture above).  Since then, the statistics on the journal have been staggering.

• Submitted 74
• Published 16
• Edited and accepted 11
• Declined 27 (36%)
• In-review 15
• Days-to-review 55, and days-to-publication 126

People are reading this journal, mostly from SA but a strong component are from Nigeria and the rest of the developing world.  The website has registered  over 2000 unique visitors this year, with 3.42 visits/person.  People like what they see and 77% of people come back through internet bookmarks.

When Dr. de Villiers asked, what did we do right?  He believes he had many good things working for him:

• Credibility of his editorial board – this gives the author/reader trust to submit articles as well as to use the journal as a reference tool
• Quality of editorial process (maybe too good with 36% rejection rate?)
• Sponsorship of funding and support
• OJS/online availablity
• Professional publishing service

This journal was endorsed by the World Association of Family Doctors (WONCA) at their 2009 conference and has been indexed in African Index Medicus.  African Journals on Line (AJOL) will be accepting the journal this year, and they hope to be indexed in PubMed next year.

He states some of the challenges he has seen as well as anticipates seeing are:

• Need for continued funding (>5 years)
• High rejection rate
• Author support may be needed
• Additional funding to publish more articles (costs 500 euros per article)

When talking about the future of what he thinks the journal needs to do to stay visible and expand:

• Accreditation – needed from the Department of Education in order to get more funding (their application is being considered now)
• Continuing Professional Development credits needed
• XML publishing (under review)
• Thesis abstracts  will start to be published July 2009
• French abstracts/articles will be started to help readership

Related Links

Open Journals Publishing

VLIR ZEIN PR320 project