Discovering Open Access Engineering Journals
An Examination of Indexing Rates for DOAJ and Non-DOAJ Content
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29173/istl1Abstract
This study examines the indexing of open access journals in the engineering disciplines. The sample used in this study was generated from a title listing pulled from the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) in late 2013. Indexing data from four prominent commercial databases in the discipline, Compendex, Web of Science, Inspec, and Scopus, were gathered in late 2017. The four-year interval was a critical component to the methodology, in that it provided sufficient time for these open journals to establish themselves in the research marketplace and earn the attention of leading indexers. The study found that while no single database provided excellent coverage of the open access content, in aggregate, the four databases indexed journals currently listed by the DOAJ reasonably well. The study also found that the four commercial databases indexed current DOAJ content at a much higher rate than content that was no longer listed in the DOAJ.
Downloads
References
Beall, J. 2012. Predatory publishers are corrupting open access. Nature 489 (7415): 179. DOI: 10.1038/489179a
Berger, M. & Cirasella, J. 2015. Beyond Beall's list. College & Research Libraries News 76(3): 132-135. Available from: https://crln.acrl.org/index.php/crlnews/article/view/9277/10342
COPE. 2018. Core Practices. Available from: https://publicationethics.org/core-practices
Cummings, J. 2013. Open access journal content found in commercial full-text aggregation databases and Journal Citation Reports. New Library World 114 (3/4):166-178. DOI: 10.1108/03074801311304078
Cusker, J. & Rauh, A.E. 2014. A survey of physical sciences, engineering and mathematics faculty regarding author fees in open access journals. Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship 78. DOI: 10.5062/F4VH5KTQ
DOAJ. 2018a. Principles of Transparency and Best Practices in Scholarly Publishing. Available from: https://doaj.org/bestpractice
DOAJ. 2018b. Frequently Asked Questions: About. Available from: https://doaj.org/faq#list
Elsevier. 2018. How Scopus Works: Content. Available from: https://www.elsevier.com/solutions/scopus/how-scopus-works/content
Evans, S., Thompson, H., & Watkins, A. 2011. Discovering open access art history: a comparative study of the indexing of open access art journals. The Serials Librarian 61: 168-188. DOI: 10.1080/0361526X.2011.592666
Fisher, J., Hart, E., & Yonyz, E. 2009. Are they being indexed II? A follow-up to tracking the indexing and abstracting of open access journals. Proceedings of the Charleston Library Conference. DOI: 10.5703/1288284314740
Hart, E. 2010. Indexing open access law journals...or maybe not. International Journal of Legal Information 38 (1): 19-41. Available from: https://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/ijli/vol38/iss1/5
IET. 2018. Documentation: Free Lists of the Journals Covered by Inspec. Available from: https://www.theiet.org/resources/inspec/support/docs/index.cfm
Laakso M., Welling P., Bukvova H., Nyman L., Bjork B-C. & Hedlund T. 2011. The development of open access journal publishing from 1993 to 2009. PLoS ONE 6(6): e20961. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0020961
OASPA. 2018. Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing. Available from: https://oaspa.org/principles-of-transparency-and-best-practice-in-scholarly-publishing-3/
Poulin, S. & Tomaszewski, R. 2014. Open access journals in communication studies: indexing in five commercial databases. Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarian 33 (3): 3-14. DOI: 10.1080/01639269.2014.866019
Suber, P. 2015. Open Access Overview. Available from: http://bit.ly/oa-overview
Testa, M. 2016. Availability and discoverability of open-access journals in music. Music Reverence Services Quarterly 19 (1): 1-17. DOI: 10.1080/10588167.2016.1130386
van Noorden, R. 2014. Open-access web site gets tough. Nature 512 (7512): 17. DOI: 10.1038/512017a
Yontz, E. & Fisher, J. 2007. Are they being indexed? tracking the indexing and abstracting of open access journals. Charleston Conference Proceedings 2007: 126.
Additional Files
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2019 James Bierman
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
