Will open-access journals substitute big-deal subscriptions in engineering college libraries in India?

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to analyse the impact of open-access (OA) journals in engineering and technology institutions, if libraries are not subscribed to the journals through the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) mandatory packages. In India, many engineering colleges do not subscribe to journals through business subscription models or consortia and invariably a majority of them depend on OA journals to fulfil their users’ needs.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper identifies the impact factors of mandatory journals made in big-deal subscriptions with the impact factors of OA journals available to access in Directory of OA Journals pertaining to engineering and technology.

Findings

The study reveals that journals subscribed through big-deal subscriptions have better impact in the scholarly communications than the OA journals.

Research limitations/implications

The results of this study cannot be generalized to all disciplines. Impact factors of journals can also be calculated by use of SCImago Journal Rank indicator, which uses the Scopus database. Publish or Perish can also be used to analyse Google Scholar rankings to identify the individual journal’s impact.

Originality/value

The result of the study is useful for selection of e-journals in big-deal subscriptions and it highlights the implications and impact of OA journals in engineering and technology.

Citation

Aragudige, N. and Vasanthakumar, M. (2014), "Will open-access journals substitute big-deal subscriptions in engineering college libraries in India?", The Electronic Library, Vol. 32 No. 6, pp. 852-863. https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-12-2012-0164