This document summarizes scholarly communication and e-journals. It defines scholarly communication as the process by which academic content is generated, reviewed, disseminated and built upon. E-journals are described as journals available electronically over the internet or on CD-ROM. The benefits of e-journals include speed of publication and distribution, unlimited access, portability, and ability to link to other resources. E-journals are now overtaking print journals due to factors like cost reductions and user expectations changing with technology. However, issues still include the exponential rise in prices of some journals and licensing restrictions on electronic access.

1. SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATIONS
By,
Vasantha Raju N.
Librarian
Govt. First Grade College-Talakad
vasanthrz@gmail.com
Paper Presented at the Department of Library and Information Science, Dr. B.R.
Ambedkar Post Graduate Centre, University of Mysore, Chamarajanagara on 25th April
2018

2. What is Scholarly Communication (SC)?
Scholarly communication (SC) is a cyclical process in
which content is generated, reviewed, disseminated,
acquired, preserved, discovered, accessed, and
assimilated for the advancement of scholarship.
The assimilation can potentially lead to generation of
new content and thus start a new iteration of the
process (or lifecycle).
- Adrian K. Ho

3. Scholarly Communication Life Cycle
*Depending on the mode of dissemination, some components may not exist.
Source: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1019&context=wlpres

4. Scholarly Communication Channels
• Scholarly Communication is disseminated or
exchanged via formal and informal channels of
communication
– Formal communication channels
• Journals, proceedings, databases, books, etc.,
- Informal communication channels
• Listservs, invisible colleges, preprints, conversations,
etc.,

5. Historical Developments of Scholarly Communication
• In the beginning of the emergence of scholarly journals,
learned societies have played crucial role in its development.
• Journal des Scavans – was the first academic journal which was
Published 5th January in 1665 in Paris
• The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society- was the
second academic journals released 6th March 1665 in England
• By the end of 2014, Ulrich’s Web Directory listed 28134
active scholarly peer-reviewed English language journals.

6. Scholarly Communication Channels
Databases, eJournals,
eBooks, Institutional
repositiories,
Webcasts, etc.
Indexes, print journals, print
proceedings, books, etc.
Invisible college,
conversations, pre-prints,
etc.
Websites, blogs,
email, ePreprints
DigitizedNon-digitized
Informal/unpublished
Formal /archived
Source: www.bu.edu/libfiles/planning/.../scholarly-communication/scholar-comm-8-05.ppt

7. Primary (Formal) Channels of Scholarly
Communication
Academic Journals
Conference Proceedings
Research Monographs
Research Reports
Working Papers
Theses & Dissertations
Patents/ Standards
Source: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002319/231938e.pdf

8. Types of Articles in Academic Journals
Review Paper
Feature Article
Short/Research Communication
Opinion/ Commentary Paper
Perspectives/Insights
News/Views
Letter to the Editor
Book Reviews
Research Paper
Editorial
Source: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002319/231938e.pdf

9. Content Pages of Two Indian Known Journals
Current Science-1

10. Content Pages of Two Indian Known Journals
Economic & Political Weekly-2

11. Academic Journals
• (Academic) Journals are regarded as the main spike
in the scholarly communication process or cycle.
( Academic or Scholarly) Journals are periodicals
carrying accounts of research published after due
peer review rather than journalistically based
magazines
Source: https://www.stm-assoc.org/2015_02_20_STM_Report_2015.pdf

12. What Constitutes a (Academic) Journal
• Should have an ISSN number
• Should consists of Peer-Reviewed contents
• Should be published on a regular basis
• The contents should be relevant and readable for an
international audience, and
• Should have publications ethics and publication malpractice
statement
- UNESCO Open Access for
Researchers Scholarly
Communication Course Module

13. Major Functions of Academic Journals
• Mark Ware & Michael Mabe (2009) have identified four
major functions of a journal, they are:
 Registration: Establishing the author’s precedence and ownership of an
idea
 Dissemination: Communicating the findings of its intended audience
 Certification: Ensuring quality control through peer review and
rewarding authors
 Archival Record: Preserving a fixed version of the paper for future
reference and citation

14. Peer-Review
• Peer Review is fundamental to scholarly communication and
specifically to journals. It is the process of subjecting an author’s
manuscript to the scrutiny of others who are experts in the same
field, prior to publication in a journal.
• Peer Review helps to determine the validity, significance and
originality of the work
• helps to improve the manuscripts by identifying the gaps in the
literature
• Enable discussion among authors reviewers and editors

15. Different Types of Peer-Review
Source: https://www.elsevier.com/reviewers/what-is-peer-review

16. Peer-Review Process
Source: https://editorresources.taylorandfrancisgroup.com/peer-review-introduction/

17. Shift From Print Based Journals to Electronic Journals
(Publishing)- What Made it?
• formal pattern of printed communication was
relatively slow or lengthy process for
dissemination
• Increasing costs restricted the immediate access to
scholarly journals
• Decreases in library acquisition budgets
• Changing in Information Seeking behaviour
• Reduction in computing and communication costs
(Advancements in Internet/Web Technologies)
Source: http://internet.unib.ktu.lt/physics/texts/schoolarly/scolcom.htm

18. E-Journals
• Electronic journal (e-journals) is any journal which is available in
electronic or computerized form on the internet or on CD-ROM.
Electronic journals have been called by various names such as
virtual journals, paperless journals, online journals, scholarly
electronic journals, networked journals and CD-ROM journals
- Sasse and Winkler, 1993.
Electronic journal is one which is available electronically and used
with the help of computer and other communication technologies
- Singh and Krishan Kumar, 2005.

19. Types of E-Journals
• King & Mckim (as cited in Mukherjee, 2009) have identified four
types of electronic journals. They are:
• Pure e-journals which are originally distributed only in digital form
e.g. Electronic Journal of Communication, Journal of Digital
Information, Information Research.
• E-p journals which are primarily distributed electronically, but may
have very limited distribution in paper form. e.g. Journal of Artificial
Intelligence Research, Electronic Transactions on Artificial Intelligence.
• P-e journals which are primarily distributed in paper form, but are
also distributed electronically. E.g. Nature, Science, Physical Review.
• P+e journals which are initiated with parallel paper and electronic
editions that may be widely distributed. e.g. Organic Letters.

20. Types of E-Journals
Conti….
• There were other studies which have distinguished e-journals based on their
format of publication, distribution and free access. Kumar & Grover (2007)
have identified three types of e-journals. They are:
 Electronic Journals: Which are available in electronic format with print
version. Some publishers provide printed journals with online access on
nominal charges. Some journals are available in electronic version and print
version is available on some extra charges. Some electronic journals are
free with print version.
 Electronic-Only Journals: Electronic-only journals are those which only
publishes in electronic format. They have no print counter parts. They may
be available on subscription or freely.
 Open Access Journals: Open access (OA) journals are scholarly journals
that are available online to the reader "without financial, legal, or technical
barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet
itself. They remove price barriers (e.g. subscription, licensing fees, pay-per-
view fees) and most permission barriers (e.g. copyright and licensing
restrictions). While open access journals are freely available to the reader,
there are still costs associated with the publication and production of such
journals. Some are subsidized, and some require payment on behalf of the
author.
Source: Kumar, S. and Grover, V. K. (2007), “Electronic journals: Impact on scholarly communication, user and Library”,
Library Herald, Vol. 45 No.4, pp. 325-336.

21. Benefits of E-Journal (Publishing)
• Speed of Publication & Distributions
- E-journals can be published more quickly, which overcomes the delays
experienced with print publications
• Print Materials Are Limited and Exclusive in Use
– Restricted access/ Replicated innumerable times
– electronic documents are not exhausted by use.
• Convenience
– Remote Access (independent of location)
– Facilitate cross searching
– No time constraints (faster in accessing and disseminating information)
Source: Wu, Michelle M. (2005). Why print and electronic resources are essential to the academic law library. Georgetown Law Faculty
Publications and Other Works. Retrieved from http://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/783

22. Benefits of E-Journal (Publishing)
• Portability
– Easily transportable (e-book readers/Reduce Space)
• Relational Mobility
– Can link to other databases or e-resources
• User expectations
– Adaptations of technology
• Lower costs of contents
– Pay-per-view
• Accurate Use Assessment
– Obtaining Usage statistical Data through log-ins/Downloads
Source: Wu, Michelle M. (2005). Why print and electronic resources are essential to the academic law library.
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works. Retrieved from
http://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/783

23. E-Journals Overtaking its Print Counter Part
• ALPSP’s 2008 Report on scholarly Publishing Practice (Cox & Cox, 2008)
found that 96% of STM and 87% of arts, humanities and social sciences
journals were accessible electronically in 2008.
The total numbers of electronic and print-only journal titles subscribed to by the 115 UK
universities (Source: SCONUL, from RIN 2009)
Source: https://www.stm-assoc.org/2015_02_20_STM_Report_2015.pdf

24. Serial Crisis and Other Issues in Scholarly
Communications
• Exponential Price of STM Journals (Scientific,
Technical, and Medical (STM) fields (“serials crisis”)
• Library Budget Cuts/Shrinking
• Inflation & Economic Recession
• Licensing restrictions on access

25. Serial Crisis & Change in Electronic Publishing and Subscribing
Models
• Establishment of library consortia
• Digitization of back volumes & offering reduced
prices
• Non-profit publishers offering OA to back volumes
• Strengthening Inter Library Loan (ILL) services
• Emergence of Open Access( Movement) Publishing
Models
Source: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002319/231938e.pdf

26. Introducing Library Consortia
• In order to mitigate the serial crisis libraries around the
world introduced library consortia model of subscribing
scholarly journals .
A Consortium is described as a group of organizations who
come together to fulfil a combined objective that usefully
requires co-operation and the sharing of resources. And need
to have a clear mutual goal in order to ensure their success. A
library Consortium formation can be local, regional, state,
national and inter institutional level.

27. Some of the Well Known Library Consortia in India
Consortia Name Year Functions
National Knowledge Resource Consortium
(NKRC)
http://nkrc.niscair.res.in/
2009 • NKRC is a network of libraries and information centres
of 43 CSIR and 26 DST institutes
• NKRC facilitates access to 5,000+ e-journals of all
major publishers, patents, standards, citation and
bibliographic databases
FORSA (Forum for Resource Sharing in
Astronomy and Astrophysics)
http://www.rri.res.in/htmls/library/forsa.html
1981 • Facilitate e-access to Journals and Books;
• Actively participate in Resource Sharing, ILL;
• Document delivery by Fax, e-mail, Speed post,
Courier, etc.
• Database merging of library holdings (Books/Journals)
and facilitate access to merged database and others
HELINET (Health Sciences Library &
Information Network)
http://www.rguhs.ac.in/digitallibrary/Helinet
%20about%20us.html
2002 • o meet the needs of academic and research community
of health science disciplines in the state of Karnataka
through Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences.
• About 600+ core international e-journals, 2000+ e-
books, 1500+ videos and databases are being
subscribed/ procured and provided to students and
faculties and research scholars pursuing their studies in
various faculties of health sciences

28. Consortia Name Year Functions
IIM’s Library Consortia (The Indian Institute
of Management)
http://library.iima.ac.in/iimconsortium/
2000 • Sharing of information on library processes and
policies across IIMs.
• Collective negotiation to decrease the cost of e-
resources and or increase the collections.
• Sharing of resources like books, journals, papers, CDs,
etc. on Inter Library Loan.
INDEST-AICTE Consortium (Indian National
Digital Library in Engineering Sciences and
Technology)
http://paniit.iitd.ac.in/indest/
2003 • Was set up by the Ministry of Human Resource
Development (MHRD)
• The Consortium subscribes to over 12,000 electronic
journals from a number of publishers and aggregators
• .The total number of members in the Consortium
has now grown to 1235
UGC-Infonet Digital Library Consortium
(e-ShodhSindhu)
https://www.inflibnet.ac.in/ess/about.php
e-ShodhSindhu: Consortium for
Higher Education Electronic Resources
(UGC-INFONET, N-LIST and INDEST-AICTE
Consortium)
2004 • Provides current as well as archival access to
more than 15,000 core and peer-reviewed
journals and a number of bibliographic,
citation and factual databases in different
disciplines from a large number of publishers
and aggregators to its member institutions
including centrally-funded technical institutions,
universities and colleges that are covered
under 12(B) and 2(f) Sections of the UGC Act.

29. Digitization of back volumes Journals
• Institutions have undertaken digitization of back
volumes of print journals and have archived these
contents in online platforms such as Project Muse &
JSTOR.
• Project Muse & JSTOR are offering subscription based
access to digitized print journals at much cheaper
price for institutions and universities across the world.

30. Subscription-based service to online full text
research databases
• Online full text research databases provide contents
from multiple publishers in multidisciplinary subject
areas
• These databases are much cheaper than publisher’s
journal subscription.
Some of the major online full text research database
service providers are :

31. Source : http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002319/231938e.pdf

32. Strengthening Inter Library Loan (ILL) Services
• The ever increasing cost of scholarly journals and libraries
shrinking budgets made libraries across the world to
strengthening and depending the ILL services to provide access
to information.
• Library cooperation become part of many libraries. In India
also many institutions and libraries started library networking.
Early efforts can be traced back to the 1980s with start of DEL
NET, CALIBNET, MANLIBNET, MYLIBNET etc.,
• ILL operates on principles of cooperation and resource sharing.
• Library users search information in his library or through
databases and then seek required information from ILL
Network libraries.
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002319/231938e.pdf

33. Open Access Publishing Models
• The high cost of scholarly journals and restrictive copyright/licensing
policies made academics and libraries to think of developing new
publishing models.
• As a result Open Access Movement (OA) was introduced to provide
free and unrestricted access to scholarly information (knowledge)
• Scholarly open access (OA) journals are a kind of e-journals
available in online environment through Internet, without any access
barrier, such as annual subscription fee. In the beginning years of the
21st Century, scholarly communities got engaged with the global OA
movements for opening up scholarly resources, more particularly
research literature, to worldwide researchers’ communities without
any access fee or subscription cost.

34. Open Access Definition
BOAI and PLoS Defines OA as
“the free availability of literature on the public Internet,
permitting any user to read, download, copy, distribute,
print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl
them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use
them for any other lawful purpose without financial, legal,
or technical barriers other than those inseparable from
gaining access to the Internet itself”
(Budapest Open Access Initiative, 2002; Public Library of
Science, 2005)

35. The Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing and the Berlin
Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities
have included the following statement on OA
• The author(s) and copyright holder(s) grant(s) to all users a free, irrevocable,
worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute,
transmit and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative
works, in any digital medium for any responsible purpose, subject to proper
attribution of authorship, as well as the right to make small number of printed
copies for their personal use.
• A complete version of the work and all supplemental materials, including a copy
of the permission as stated above, in a suitable standard electronic format is
deposited immediately upon initial publication in at least one online repository
that is supported by an academic institution, scholarly society, government
agency, or other well-established organization that seeks to enable open access,
unrestricted distribution, interoperability, and long-term archiving (for the
biomedical sciences, PubMed Central is such a repository)
(Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing, 2003; Berlin Declaration on Open Access to
Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, 2003, as cited in Mukherjee, 2009)

36. Types of Open Access (OA)
• Green Open Access (Self Archiving): Making (peer-reviewed)
manuscripts of published journal articles freely available
online, e.g., archiving in institutional or central repositories,
arXiv
• Gold Open Access (Open Access Journals) : Made possible by
publishing in online books or journals that are freely available
for access, e.g., journals published by the Public Library of
Science (PLOS) and others
• There are other types of OA journal as well. For instance:
Delayed Open Access Journals (Embargoed Access Journals ) and
Partial Open Access Journals (making certain articles OA).
Source: https://www.stm-assoc.org/2015_02_20_STM_Report_2015.pdf

37. Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
https://doaj.org/
• DOAJ is a online directory which indexes and provide access to open access
peer reviewed journals.
• It acts as major source of information for identifying and accessing open
access scholarly journals
• As on 24th of April 2018 DOAJ directory consists of 11273 open access
journals.

38. Self Archiving Digital Repositories
(Green Open Access)
• Digital Repositories allow authors to self archive
their research materials
• Repositories organize, store and preserve research
materials
• Allow users to search and access collected
materials without any financial and legal
restrictions.

39. Digital Repositories Around the World
Disciplinary Repositories
Legends Type Numbers
Aggregating 108
Disciplinary 304
Governmental 85
Institutional 3023
Source: http://www.opendoar.org/index.html

40. Some of Well Known Subject Based Repositories
Source : http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002319/231938e.pdf

41. Institutional Repositories (IRs)
Institutional repositories (IRs) are open access, online
electronic archives of university research outputs such
as journal articles, conference papers, books, book
chapters and digital objects including video and
sound files.

42. IRs and Its Benefits
• Increase the visibility and prestige of the Institutions
• Accountable for public funding
• Serve as an online archival database for storing institutional
research output
• Enhance the institutional research profile
• International visibility and recognition of the institutions
• Help for research collaborations and networking
• Attract quality staff and students to the institutions
• Support for teaching and learning
• Attract research funding
• Attract more citations and impact

43. Content Types in OpenDOAR Repositories - India
Source: http://www.opendoar.org/index.html

44. Software Used for Developing IRs in India
Source: http://www.opendoar.org/index.html

45. IR @ University of Mysore
Source: http://eprints.uni-mysore.ac.in/

46. Finding Digital Repositories and Findings Publishers Open Access
Policies
Directory Name Website Discription
OpenDOAR (Directory of Open
Access Repositories)
http://www.opendoar.org/index.html OpenDOAR maintains a
comprehensive and authoritative
list of institutional and subject-
based repositories.
ROAR (Registry of Open Access
Repositories)
http://roar.eprints.org/ The aim of ROAR is to promote the
development of open access by
providing timely information about
the growth and status of
repositories throughout the world
Repositry66 http://maps.repository66.org/ Repositry66 provides visualization
of digital repository statistics
SHERPA/RoMEO http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/index SHERPA RoMEO is an online
resource that aggregates and
analyses publisher open access
policies from around the world
and provides summaries of self-
archiving permissions and
conditions of rights given to
authors on a journal-by-journal
basis.

47. Journals and Publishers Open Access Archiving Policy
Source:http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/statistics.php?la=en&fIDnum=|&mode=simple

48. New Models of Open Source Online Journal Publishing
• Online journals are hosted by institutions or academic libraries on freely
available online journal publishing platforms
• Some of the OS online journal publishing Software for hosting and
publishing OA Journals
– Open Journal Systems (OJS)
– DPubS (Digital Publishing System)
– epublishing Toolkit (ePubTk)

49. Open Journal Systems (OJS)
(https://pkp.sfu.ca/ojs/)
• Open Journal Systems (OJS) is a journal management and publishing
system developed by the Public Knowledge Project (PKP)
• OJS is open source software made freely available for institutions to
host journals only
• OJS encourages journals shifting towards open access mode
• Facilitate online submission and management of scholarly content

50. Some of the LIS journals Published Using OJS platform

51. Open Data Initiative
• Open data is nothing but making available research data freely on the web
for others to use for expanding the existing knowledge
• making available of open data results in the rise of new disciplines,
alternative ways of evaluating the quality and impact of research, new
pathways in publishing, and different scientific reputation systems.
https://data.gov.in/

52. Open Education Resources (OERs)
• Open Educational Resources (OERs) are any type of educational
materials that are in the public domain or introduced with an open
license.
• The nature of these open materials means that anyone can legally and
freely copy, use, adapt and re-share them.
• OERs range from textbooks to curricula, syllabi, lecture notes,
assignments, tests, projects, audio, video and animation.

53. Examples for OERs
http://nptel.ac.in/ http://epgp.inflibnet.ac.in/index.php

54. Other Emerging Alternative Scholarly Communication
Channels
• Blogs emerging as alternative platforms for academic
communication and exchange of information
• Wikis for Collaborative Research
• Social Media and Network for research and publications
– SciVee , Mendeley, ResearchGate, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Social
Science Research Network (SSRN), figshare, etc.,
• Launching of Data Journals
– Biodiversity Data Journal, International Journal of Robotics Research,
etc.,
• Semantic Web and Semantic Enrichment
• Linked Data (Microsoft Academic Search)
• Open Annotations
Source : http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002319/231938e.pdf

55. References
I have used following sources extensively in preparing this
presentation
• Fjällbrant, Nancy. (1997). Scholarly Communication: Historical development and new possibilities.
Retrieved from http://internet.unib.ktu.lt/physics/texts/schoolarly/scolcom.htm
• Ho, Adrian K. (2010). Scholarly Communication: A Presentation for FIMS LIS9630 [PowerPoint Slides].
Retrieved from https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1019&context=wlpres
• Jones, L. (2014). What is peer review? Retrieved from
https://editorresources.taylorandfrancisgroup.com/peer-review-introduction/
• Keefer, Alice, (2001). Electronic journals, scholarly communication and libraries. Retrieved from
http://bid.ub.edu/06keefe2.htm
• Kling, R., & Callahan, E. (2003). Electronic journals, the Internet, and scholarly communication. Annual
Review of Information Science and Technology, 37, 127–177.
• Kumar, S., & Grover, V. K. (2007). Electronic journals: Impact on scholarly communication, user and
Library. Library Herald, 45(4), 325-336.
• Mugar Memorial Library (2005). Scholarly communications [PowerPoint Slides]. Retrieved from
http://www.bu.edu/libfiles/planning/2004-2005/environmental-scan/scholarly-
communication/scholar-comm-8-05.ppt

56. • Mukherjee. B. (2009). Scholarly communication: A journey from print to web. Library Philosophy &
Practice. Retrieved from http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~mbolin/mukherjee.htm
• SHERPA/RoMEO:Publisher copyright policies & self-archiving. (2018). Retrieved from
http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/index.php?la=en&fIDnum=|&mode=simple
• The Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR). (2018). Retrieved from
http://www.opendoar.org/index.html
• UNESCO (Producer). (2015). Scholarly communications [Open Access (OA) Curriculum]. Retrieved
from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002319/231938e.pdf
• Ware, M., & Mabe, M. (2009). The STM Report: An overview of scientific and scholarly journal
publishing. Retrieved from STM: International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical
Publishers Website: https://www.stm-assoc.org/2009_10_13_MWC_STM_Report.pdf
• Ware, M., & Mabe, M. (2015). The STM Report: An overview of scientific and scholarly journal
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• What is peer review? (2018). Retrieved from https://www.elsevier.com/reviewers/what-is-peer-
review
• Wu, Michelle M. (2005). Why print and electronic resources are essential to the academic law library.
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works. Retrieved from
http://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/783

57. Thank You
?
Image Courtesy: OCLC