SSP quarterly LP update

The July issue of Learned Publishing is out, with a bumper crop of outstanding articles!

We kick off with an editorial by Pippa Smart, who questions how editors can balance quality with inclusivity – a hot topic from the SSP and EASE conferences, also to be address during the ALPSP meeting in September. This latest issue offers a wealth of new research – from evaluating journal coverage in the Emerging Sources Citation Index, to the growth and quality of Chinese journals, and an evaluation of author-suggested reviewers. Original data on the publishing habits of Arab authors in the social sciences and humanities is discussed, as well as the latest installment of analysis on early career researcher behavior. For an update on OA initiatives, read about the incubator model at Utrecht University Library, now in operation for 6 years. For anyone interested in technology initiatives, the update on reconciling ORCID iDs from article submissions is a must-read. And don’t skip the article from Cabell’s, explaining their criteria for adding titles to its Journals Blacklist – fascinating stuff! 

If you have thought about using scenario planning in publishing, the case study from the BMJ provides many useful insights. For those concerned about the recently released Impact Factor stats, read more on how individual papers can skew a journal’s ranking. We have also included a plea to revise the ICMJE authorship obligations, as well as a consideration how the copyright landscape is changing.

Everyone working for an ALPSP member organization can access the full text by logging in via ALPSP, https://www.alpsp.org/Learned-Publishing. The journal is now live on the new Wiley platform, so come have a tour of our new site. SSP members – please log in to the member center on the SSP website to access the full content.

Enjoy this addition to your summer reading!

Lettie Y. Conrad
North American Editor
Learned Publishing

NOTE: All articles are free to SSP members and journal subscribers; those editorials, reviews and articles using the ‘ALPSP Author Choice’ OA option, are now free to all. Also, be sure to sign up to receive an email alert or RSS feed every time a new issue goes online.

Learned Publishing Vol. 31 / No. 3, July 2018

Editorial

Collection, curation, and quality: The editor’s responsibility
by Pippa Smart, Editor in Chief

Original articles

What influences the regional diversity of reviewers: A study of medical and agricultural/biological sciences journals
by Thomas Gaston and Pippa Smart

Journal coverage of the Emerging Sources Citation Index
by Marta Somoza‐Fernández, Josep‐Manuel Rodríguez‐Gairín, and Cristóbal Urbano

Growth and quality of Chinese journals from 1949 to 2013
by Yuandi Wang, Yu Chen, Meijun Liu, and Ruifeng Hu

Should authors suggest reviewers? A comparative study of the performance of author‐suggested and editor‐selected reviewers at a biological journal
by Yan Liang

Where Arab social science and humanities scholars choose to publish: Falling in the predatory journals trap
by Ahmed Maher Khafaga Shehata and Mohammed Fathy Mahmoud Elgllab

Industry updates

Sustainable open access for scholarly journals in 6 years – the incubator model at Utrecht University Library Open Access Journals
by Jeroen Sondervan Fleur Stigter

Keeping it authentic: Reconciling ORCID iDs gathered at submission with the author manuscript
by Robin Dunford Bruce Rosenblum

Cabells’ Journal Whitelist and Blacklist: Intelligent data for informed journal evaluations
by Michael Bisaccio

What publishers can take away from the latest early career researcher research
by David Nicholas, Anthony Watkinson, Abdullah Abrizah, Cherifa Boukacem‐Zeghmouri, Jie Xu, Blanca Rodríguez‐Bravo, Marzena Świgoń, and Eti Herman

Case studies

The future of global research: A case study on the use of scenario planning in the publishing industry
by Samira Rhoods and Anca Babor

The effect of publishing a highly cited paper on a journal’s impact factor: A case study of the Review of Particle Physics
by Weishu Liu, Fang Liu, Chao Zuo, and Junwen Zhu

Opinions

Revise the ICMJE Recommendations regarding authorship responsibility!
by Gert Helgesson and Stefan Eriksson

The changing copyright landscape in academic publishing
by Francis Dodds