Trying the Gold Road on a Shoestring Budget:

Open Access Publishing with PKP's

Open Journal SystemNancy R. John, University of Illinois at Chicago

Edward J. Valauskas, First Monday

CNI Briefing, April 2007

Brief Description of the University of Illinois at Chicago Library Digital Publishing Program

Objectives:• Showcase the work of the UIC faculty• Encourage development of open

journals• Inform and educate about intellectual

property• Affirm the role of the library as the leader

in these areas

Three programs

• Journal publishing: http://journals.uic.edu

• Digital repository: http://indigo.lib.uic.edu

• Copyright information: http://copyright.uic.edu

Journals @ UIC

• UIC Library’s long history• Outgrowth of a 2005 program on Scholarly

Communication– Faculty discussed issues with publishing:

• Quality• Quantity• P&T concerns• Academic Freedom• Need for campus support to do the work of editing,

archiving etc.

• Search for software to go beyond the simple ‘PDFs on a Web page’

First partner: Mark Mattaini, Behavior and Social Issues

• Brief description of the journal• Issues needing support• Forming a partnership• The work

– Setting up BSI– A plan for current issues– A plan for back issues

• Full-text issues• Print only issues

Second partner: First Monday

• Brief description of the journal

• Since its start in May 1996, First Monday has published 795 papers in 132 issues; these papers were written by 951 different authors. In addition, eight special issues have appeared.

• 6,363,335 papers downloaded in 2006.

FM statistics• First Monday users come from:

– United States 33.6%– United Kingdom 9.6%– Australia 7.2%– India 4.8%– Canada 4.4% – and 178 other countries.

• Traffic is dispersed between:– firstmonday.org - 90%– firstmonday.dk - 10%

Issues needing support• Management of submissions• Peer review• Open Archives access and LOCKSS• xml for preservation• Improved reader tools• Better searching• Format additions (PDF added to HTML)• Improved metadata• Publication/issue planning• Improved communication with editors, authors• Automation of labor intensive manual routines

The Move to OJS

• Forming a partnership

• The work– Setting up FM– A plan for current issues– A plan for back issues– Opportunities for change

Attracting partners

• Third partner: Electronic Green Journal• Fourth partner: International Journal of

Internet Research Ethics• Fifth partner: Consumer Project on

Technology A2K - Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)

• Sixth partner: ???

Lessons learned

• Timing

• Effort

• Collaboration

• Expectations

• Outcomes