Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T05:53:39.878Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Journal Publishing and Marketing in an Age of Digital Media, Open Access and Impact Factors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2017

Alex Marland
Alex Marland*
Affiliation:
Memorial University of Newfoundland
*
Department of Political Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 230 Elizabeth Avenue, St. John's, Newfoundland, A1B 3X9, email: amarland@mun.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Worldwide, the publishing industry has been compelled to change with digital media technology, and some traditional academic journals are struggling to adapt. This article examines the marketing and publicity actions available to the Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique and similar flagship journals in an environment characterized by open access (OA) and impact factor (IF) metrics. It reviews the opportunities and threats presented by a movement towards publishing in ungated forums and pressure in the academic community to prioritize bibliometrics. It then looks at the experience, characteristics and comparative position of the Journal/Revue before reporting on perceptions and recommendations drawn from depth interviews with journal editors, presidents of the Canadian Political Science Association, and a university librarian, which are supplemented by suggestions from editorial board members. It concludes with proposals to address these circumstances head on, many of which are generalizable to other journals wrestling with marketing and publishing in the digital age.

Résumé

Dans le monde entier, l'industrie de l’édition s'est vu contrainte d’évoluer avec la technologie numérique et certaines revues spécialisées peinent à s'adapter. Cet article examine les actions de mise en marché et de publicité dont la Revue canadienne de science politique/Canadian Journal of Political Science et des publications phares similaires disposent dans un environnement caractérisé par les mesures du libre accès (LA) et du facteur d'impact (FI). Il analyse les opportunités et risques que présente le passage à la publication dans des plates-formes non balisées et la pression exercée sur le milieu universitaire pour accorder la priorité aux données bibliométriques. Il passe ensuite en revue l’expérience, les caractéristiques et la posture comparative de la Revue/Journal. De plus, il présente les différentes observations et recommandations issues d’entretiens approfondis avec des éditeurs, des présidents de l’Association canadienne de science politique et d’un bibliothécaire universitaire. Des suggestions émanant des membres du comité de rédaction complètent le portrait. En conclusion, il formule des propositions pour attaquer de front ces circonstances, dont beaucoup peuvent être généralisées à d'autres revues qui se débattent avec les enjeux de la mise en marché et de la publicité à l’ère numérique.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , March 2017 , pp. 77 - 95
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Atchison, Amy and Bull, Jonathan. 2015. “Will Open Access Get Me Cited? An Analysis of the Efficacy of Open Access Publishing in Political Science.” PS: Political Science & Politics 48 (1): 129–37.Google Scholar
Aydingöz, Üstün. 2010. “Ways to Improve a Journal's Impact Factor in the Online Publication Era.” Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology 16: 255–56.Google Scholar
Beall, Jeffrey. 2015. Criteria for Determining Predatory Open-Access Publishers. https://scholarlyoa.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/criteria-2015.pdf (July 11, 2016).Google Scholar
Bellamy, Richard. 2007. “Editing a Journal.” European Political Science 6: 4–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bergeron, Gérard and Meisel, John. 1968. “Editorial Note.” Canadian Journal of Political Science 1 (1): 1.Google Scholar
Brienza, Casey. 2012. “Opening the Wrong Gate? The Academic Spring and Scholarly Publishing in the Humanities and Social Sciences.” Publishing Research Quarterly 28 (3): 159–71.Google Scholar
Cairns, Alan. 1968. “The Electoral System and the Party System in Canada, 1921–1965.” Canadian Journal of Political Science 1 (1): 55–80.Google Scholar
Cambridge University Press. 2016a. “Journal Copyright Transfer Form: Canadian Journal of Political Science.” Internal document.Google Scholar
Cambridge University Press. 2016b. Canadian Journal of Political Science. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/canadian-journal-of-political-science-revue-canadienne-de-science-politique (November 23, 2016).Google Scholar
Canadian Journal of Political Science. 1999. “Notices.” Canadian Journal of Political Science 32 (4): 823–24.Google Scholar
Canadian Political Science Association. 2016. About CPSA. https://www.cpsa-acsp.ca/about.php (July 11, 2016).Google Scholar
Canadian Political Science Review. 2016. Focus and Scope. http://ojs.unbc.ca/index.php/cpsr/about/editorialPolicies#focusAndScope (July 11, 2016).Google Scholar
Carty, R.K. 1997. “What Scholarly Authors Want From Scholarly Publishers.” International Association of Scholarly Publishers newsletter 2–3: 1–4.Google Scholar
Courtney, John C., Kawchuk, Karman B. and Spafford, Duff. 1987. “Life in Print: Citation of Articles Published in Volumes 1–10 of the Canadian Journal of Political Science / Revue canadienne de science politique .” Canadian Journal of Political Science 20 (3): 625–37.Google Scholar
Falagas, Matthew E. and Alexiou, Vangelis G.. 2008. “The Top-Ten in Journal Impact Factor Manipulation.” Archivum Immunologiae et Therapiae Experimentalis 56 (4): 223–26.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gasparyan, Armen Yuri, Ayvazyan, Lilit and Kitas, George D.. 2011. “Biomedical Journal Editing: Elements of Success.” Croatian Medical Journal 52 (3): 423–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Government of Canada. 2016a. Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications. http://www.science.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=En&n=F6765465-1 (July 11, 2016).Google Scholar
Government of Canada. 2016b. Aid to Scholarly Journals. http://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/funding-financement/programs-programmes/scholarly_journals-revues_savantes-eng.aspx (July 11, 2016).Google Scholar
Groesser, Stefan. 2012. “Dynamics of Journal Impact Factors.” Systems Research and Behavioral Science 29: 624–44.Google Scholar
Jordan, Sara R. and Hill, Kim Quaile. 2012. “Editors’ Perceptions of Ethical and Managerial Problems in Political Science Journals.” PS: Political Science and Politics 45 (4): 724–27.Google Scholar
Kudos. 2016. “About.” https://www.growkudos.com/about (July 11, 2016).Google Scholar
Lozano, George A. and Larivière, Vincent. 2012. “The Weakening Relationship between the Impact Factor and Papers’ Citations in the Digital Age.” Journal for the American Society for Information Science and Technology 63 (11): 2140–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacGibbon, D.A. 1935. “Foreword.” Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science 1 (1): 1–2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, Sally, Barnas, Ed, LaFrenier, Douglas and Reich, Margaret. 2013. The Handbook of Journal Publishing. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ovadia, Steven. 2014. “ResearchGate and Academia.edu: Academic Social Networks.” Behavioural & Social Sciences Librarian 33 (3): 165–69.Google Scholar
Oved, Marco Chown, Favaro, Avis and St. Philip, Elizabeth. 2016. “Canadian medical journals hijacked for junk science.” Toronto Star, September 29. https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/09/29/canadian-medical-journals-hijacked-for-junk-science.html (October 30, 2016).Google Scholar
Pan, Yue and Zhang, Jason Q.. 2014. “The Composition of the Editorial Boards of General Marketing Journals.” Journal of Marketing Education 36 (1): 33–44.Google Scholar
Rocher, François. 2007. “The End of the “Two Solitudes”? The Presence (or Absence) of the work of French-Speaking Scholars in Canadian Politics.” Canadian Journal of Political Science 40 (4): 833–57.Google Scholar
Rose, Richard. 1986. “Editing an International Interdisciplinary Journal.” PS: Political Science & Politics 19 (1): 88–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smeyers, Paul and Burbules, Nicholas C.. 2011. “How to Improve Your Impact Factor: Questioning the Quantification of Academic Quality.” Journal of Philosophy of Education 45 (1): 1–17.Google Scholar
Stanley, Thomas J. and Danko, William D.. 1995. The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy. Atlanta: Longstreet Press.Google Scholar
Taylor and Francis. 2016. “Australian Journal of Political Science: Aims and Scope.” http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=cajp20 (July 11, 2016).Google Scholar
Veall, Michael R. 2016. “A Note from the Editor.” Canadian Public Policy 42 (1): 110–11.Google Scholar
White, Graham. 2016. 2015 End-of-Year Report. http://www.cpsaevents.ca/2016/2016CPSAPROGRAMMEv3(May262016).pdf (July 11, 2016).Google Scholar
White, Graham. 2017. “Continuity and Change: Fifty Years of The Journal/Revue.” Canadian Journal of Political Science 50(1).Google Scholar
White, Linda A., Simeon, Richard, Vipond, Robert and Wallner, Jennifer, eds. 2008. The Comparative Turn in Canadian Political Science. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.Google Scholar