The Future of the Academic Journal

Citation

Crnic, J. (2010), "The Future of the Academic Journal", Library Management, Vol. 31 No. 4/5, pp. 362-363. https://doi.org/10.1108/01435121011046407

The book under review, The Future of the Academic Journal, is a compilation edited by Bill Cope and Angus Phillips.

They represent the two communities from which the contributing authors are derived, namely publishing and academia. The contributing authors can be generally categorised as: Academics only, Academics who are also involved in publishing, Publishers only, and Publishers who have joined academia.

The book is divided into six parts consisting of different numbers of chapters (Part 11 – the Journals Business has six chapters and Part VI consists of one chapter).

It would be misleading to derive from this that this is an indication of the value placed on the topics covered. This is far from the case.

The tone is set in the Introduction and Part 1 – Knowledge Systems, which is also co‐authored by one of the editors (Bill Cope). This chapter is quite a lengthy treatise which explores the nature of scholarly communication through the ages and the unique place of the academic journal in what is described as the “knowledge system”, and the changes that are already occurring and predictions of what is likely to occur. The authors provide a thorough examination of these changes using three main areas to illustrate their concerns: business models of publishing practices; peer‐review system; post‐publication evaluations centred on specific measures of impact. I found myself coming back to this chapter as I worked my way through the rest of the book. It proved to be valuable focal point as the issues raised were far‐reaching and comprehensively examined.

Many of the issues of scholarly communication are underpinned by the use of technology. This is also reflected in the chapters devoted to different discussions of open access (chapters 3, 4, 6, 7 and 12); repositories (chapter 10); different publishing models (chapters 2, 4, 6, 7 and 17); quite a few case studies of successful models in practice across a number of disciplines (chapters 3 and 13).

Questions around the impact of research and the measures used currently, and proposed for the future, are also dealt with by a number of authors. As these issues do not occur in isolation there is much discussion around accountability of the different peer review processes and the differing ways they are applied across different disciplines (chapter s 1, 6, 7, 9 and 12).

A feature of this compilation is the space devoted to looking beyond the first‐world English‐speaking focus of academia and publishing in general. Part IV contains three chapters looking at the specific pressures faced by academics, researchers and publishers in Africa, Asia and China specifically.

Specific chapters have also been devoted to discussing copyright issues (chapter 8) and the implications of publishing decisions for libraries generally (chapter 11).

Rounding out the series of chapters are two pertinent discussions. One examines the use of digital technologies, and whether the promise of interactivity can be a reality (chapter 18). The second one examines the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) by researchers in the course of developing their work, and how prevalent that has become, and the far‐reaching implications this will have for the way research is disseminated (chapter 19).

I highly recommend this book as I can see myself coming back to it again and again, whether to check figures or follow through the links in the substantial bibliographies provided. Definitely a worthy addition to every academic librarian's personal collection.