Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Case study of a no-fee OA journal

Paul G. Haschak, The 'platinum route' to open access: a case study of E-JASL: The Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship, Information Research, October 2007.  Abstract:  

Introduction. In 1999, with no money and no support from any library organization, the author partnered with the International Consortium for Alterative Academic Publication (ICAAP), later renamed the International Consortium for the Advancement of Academic Publication, to found a new electronic journal, The Journal of Southern Academic and Special Librarianship, renamed E-JASL: The Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship in 2002.

Description. This case study is based on the author's own experiences founding and developing a professional, independent, permanently archived, peer reviewed, open-access, electronic library journal, employing a scholar-led model of publishing. The author's partnership with the ICAAP is discussed emphasizing the benefits of this collaboration.

Conclusion. The ICAAP has demonstrated to the world that is possible to form independent scholarly journal publishing projects outside of the commercial mainstream. Also, the ICAAP has shown that there is an alternative to paying commercial publishers hundreds and even thousands of dollars to buy back the scholarly research of our colleagues in academia. The alternative is starting and/or supporting scholarly journal publishing projects that take the 'platinum route' to open-access. Everyone is encouraged to work to make academic research free and freely accessible on the Web for one and all.