PaLRaP UpdateGrowth and Reader Response

During the First Year

October 22, 2013

Tom Reinsfelder

John Barnett

The Past

• Background work began in January 2012• Work began on 1st issue in fall 2012• Vol. 1, No. 1 published April 2013• See the Editor’s Welcome in the first issue

for more details

PaLRaP published content

• Vol 1, No 1 – Spring 2013– Research 2– Practice 3– News 4– Commentary 1– Editorial 1

• Total articles published 11

Promotion• Conference presentations• Email lists• Print media/press release/rack card• Social media– Twitter– Linked In

• Alerts– Google– Talkwalker

Abstract views

• Provided by PKP OJS• Viewable by authors/journal staff

Issue 1 (Spring 2013) # Total Average per Article

– Research (2) 1,267 633– Practice (3) 1,613 537– News (4) 1,468 367– Commentary (1) 605– Editor’s welcome (1) 416

Abstract views – All items

24%

30%

27%

11%

8%

Vol 1 No 1 - Spring 2013

ResearchPracticeNewsCommentaryEditorial

Google Analytics

• May 1 – October 15, 2013

– Visits = 1,494– Unique visitors = 1,004– Page views = 10,924– Unique page views = 6,696– Average visit duration = 00:05:29

Google Analytics• Audience– United States 1,309– Egypt 18– United Kingdom 14– Palestine 13– Israel 10– India 10– Australia 9

The Present• Vol. 1, No. 2 (Fall 2013) • More guidance needed for:– Authors– Copyeditors

• New sections added– Features– “Noteworthy” – personnel briefs from PA

libraries

PaLRaP published content

• Vol 1, No 2 – Fall 2013– Research 0– Practice 5– News 9– Features 1– Commentary 2– Editorial 1

• Total articles to be published 18

PaLRaP published content %

28%

45%

3%

10%

7%

Spring 2013 & Fall 2013

ResearchPracticeNewsFeatureCommentaryEditorial

7%

Observations

• APA Style challenges– Frequent citation & formatting errors

• Copyediting challenges– Most articles need some editing to improve

readability

• Template challenges• Time investment

Life cycle of an article• Author submits article ongoing• Editors read/evaluate submission <2-3 days• Peer review 3-4 weeks• Communicate decision to author & author revisions 1-4 weeks• Copyedit 2 weeks• Editors review copyediting <1 week• Authors review copyediting 1 week• Layout 1 week• Editors review layout 2-3 days• Authors review layout & proofread 1 week• Corrections 1 week• Editors proofread 1 week• Publish 1 week• Total 15 to 22 weeks

• Creative Commons: CC-BY

• Readers may: – Share: Copy, Distribute, and Transmit the Work– Remix: Adapt the Work

• Readers must:– Provide attribution when redistributing or

remixing the work

Copyright Policy

The Future• Next issue: Vol. 2, No. 1 – Spring 2014• Adding other types of content– Reviews? What parameters?– Other ideas?

• Further clarify workflows for all roles• Recruit editorial team volunteers• Recruit authors and reviewers - ongoing

Recruiting editorial team

• Board members (ideally) serve 2-year terms

• Term began Fall 2012 • Co-Editors, News Editors, Publicity

Coordinator due to change in Fall 2014• Pressing need for copyeditors, layout

editors

Recruiting reviewers and authors

• Reviewers always welcome– Specializations appreciated– Who can serve as a reviewer?

• Research and practice authors welcome– Contact presenters at conferences– Solicit content from colleagues– Open call for articles to PA lists

• Brief news items– New submission system– Balanced content

Increasing readership and profile

• More conference presentations• Encourage more articles from PA public,

school, and special libraries• Messages to PA and US library lists• Traditional and social media• Increased indexing/harvesting

Indexing/registration• Google Scholar• MediaFinder– Database of U.S./Canadian media/publications

• Public Knowledge Project Open Journal Systems journal list

• Directory of Open Access Journals (pending)– Suggested to DOAJ; has not yet been accepted

• EBSCO (pending)– Contractual agreement– Indexing & harvesting of full-text content

Indexing/registration - future

• With 10 peer-reviewed articles or 2 published issues, opportunities increase– Open Archives Registry– UIUC OIA Registry– OAIster– Ulrich’s– NewJour– Electronic Journals Library

Rolling vs. discrete issues

• Articles in OA journals can be published – On a rolling basis, as they become ready– Or in complete, discrete issues – Or in rolling volumes with an occasional special

issue

• What should PaLRaP do?

The survey says…

• Cirasella, J., and Bowdoin, S. (2013). Just Roll with It? Rolling Volumes vs. Discrete Issues in Open Access Library and Information Science Journals.

Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication 1(4):eP1086. doi:10.7710/2162-3309.1086

Results

• Survey was distributed to journal editors, asking them about their publication model and their reasons for and satisfaction with that model

• 21 responses– 12 publish in discrete issues– 8 in rolling volumes– 1 in rolling volumes with occasional special

issue

Satisfaction

• Regardless of model, almost all editors cited ease of workflow as justification for chosen model

• All rolling-volume editors reported being satisfied with their model

• Satisfaction was less universal among discrete-issue editors

Benefits of Discrete Issues(as reported by editors of OA journals)

• Easier production workflow• Deadlines are more meaningful• Easier to promote new issues• Look & feel like a traditional journal• Easier to solicit manuscripts• Work well for themed issues

Benefits of Rolling Issues (as reported by editors of OA journals)

• Improved production workflows• Less emphasis on deadlines• Faster dissemination of information • Prevents a backlog of articles• Easier to solicit manuscripts

Discussion

• Readers and authors appreciate quick publication times

• Journal staffing needs to be consistent—or does it?

• What are other possible “issues” with a different model?

• Which model should PaLRaP follow?

Paying the bills - expenses

Open Access means free to read, and volunteers provide the labor, but….…someone still has to pay the bills.

• University of Pittsburgh E-Journal Publishing

• Domain name• Publicity

Paying the bills - income• Donate button

and join PaLA link

• Article processing fees• Advertising• Sponsorships• Partnerships• Value-added fee-based services• Something else?

Questions? Comments?

• Website: http://www.palrap.org• Journal email: palrap@mail.pitt.edu

• John Barnett, Co-Editor, jhb23@pitt.edu• Tom Reinsfelder, Co-Editor, tlr15@psu.edu