The Current State of Scholarly Journal Publishing in Africa Findings & Analysis September 2014 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License Susan Murray African Journals OnLine (AJOL) [email protected] Abby Clobridge Clobridge Consulting [email protected] 1 The Current State of Scholarly Journal Publishing in Africa Table of Contents List of Figures ................................................................................................................................................................. 4 List of Tables .................................................................................................................................................................. 5 List of Acronyms and Terms .......................................................................................................................................... 6 Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................................................... 7 Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................................................... 9 Part 1: Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................... 10 Background .............................................................................................................................................................. 10 Methodology ........................................................................................................................................................... 10 Challenges ................................................................................................................................................................ 11 Emphasis on Patterns, Not Exact Numbers ............................................................................................................. 12 About the Research Team ....................................................................................................................................... 12 Part 2: Survey Results ................................................................................................................................................. 13 1: Demographics ...................................................................................................................................................... 13 2: For Publishers ...................................................................................................................................................... 15 3: About Your Journal .............................................................................................................................................. 17 4: Journal Operating Status & Details ...................................................................................................................... 20 5: Journal Access & Formats .................................................................................................................................... 23 6: Management, Publishing, and Other Support for the Journal ............................................................................ 26 7: Economics of Journal Publishing .......................................................................................................................... 30 8: Current Access Model: Open Access or Subscription? ........................................................................................ 35 9: Open Access ......................................................................................................................................................... 35 10: Subscription Model ............................................................................................................................................ 43 11: Author Issues ..................................................................................................................................................... 48 12: Current & Future Issues – Open‐Ended Questions ............................................................................................ 50 Part 3: Observations & Notes ..................................................................................................................................... 52 African‐Based Scholarly Journals: An Overview of the Environment ...................................................................... 52 Impact Factor Fundamentalism ............................................................................................................................... 53 Economics of Journal Publishing & Long‐Term Sustainability of Journals ............................................................... 53 Tensions between Open Access, Subscription‐Based Models, and Print ................................................................ 54 Confusion around Terminology ............................................................................................................................... 54 Need for Capacity Building ...................................................................................................................................... 54 Part 4: Future Directions ............................................................................................................................................. 55 Next Steps ................................................................................................................................................................ 55 Appendix ..................................................................................................................................................................... 56 Appendix 1: Reasons for Offering the Journal in Print ............................................................................................ 57 Appendix 2: Additional Services Requested of Publishers ...................................................................................... 61 Appendix 3: Additional Comments Regarding Journals’ Current Economic Situation ............................................ 63 Appendix 4: Additional Factors in Becoming Open Access ...................................................................................... 66 Appendix 5: Journals’ methods of measuring benefits of Open Access .................................................................. 68 Appendix 6: Difficulties Encountered Due to Open Access Model .......................................................................... 69 2 The Current State of Scholarly Journal Publishing in Africa Appendix 7: Insights for others considering Open Access ....................................................................................... 70 Appendix 8: One thing to change about scholarly publishing ................................................................................. 72 Appendix 9: Top Concerns, Next 3‐5 Years .............................................................................................................. 75 Appendix 10: Additional comments regarding publishing in Africa ........................................................................ 79 Appendix 11: Final Comments & Thoughts ............................................................................................................. 83 3 The Current State of Scholarly Journal Publishing in Africa List of Figures Figure 1: Birth Decades of Respondents ...................................................................................................................... 13 Figure 2: Respondents by Gender ............................................................................................................................... 13 Figure 3: Respondents' Current Profession ................................................................................................................. 14 Figure 4: Respondents’ Role in Publishing++ ............................................................................................................... 14 Figure 5: Number of Journals Published by Your Organization ................................................................................... 15 Figure 6: Services Provided by Your Organization ....................................................................................................... 15 Figure 7: Subject Areas of Journals .............................................................................................................................. 17 Figure 8: Founding Decade of Journals ........................................................................................................................ 17 Figure 9: Frequency of Publication (2012) ................................................................................................................... 18 Figure 10: Main Language of Journal ........................................................................................................................... 18 Figure 11: Has this journal experienced any interruptions in publishing? ................................................................. 20 Figure 12: Current Operating Status ...........................................................................................................................