the impact of special issues on journal management
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The Impact of Special Issueson Journal Management
Edward VanhoutteEditor-in-ChiefDigital Scholarship in the Humanities
[email protected]@dshjournal
Edward Vanhoutte – EIC DSH – 18 March 2015 – #OJD15
Special Issues are highly popular:
• 4-6 proposals / year• Thematic Workshops• Conferences• Subject Clusters• Interdisciplinary Networks• Niche Subjects• Subdisciplines
Edward Vanhoutte – EIC DSH – 18 March 2015 – #OJD15
Shift:
• Monography → Edited Volumes• Unsollicited Journal Submissions
→ Thematic Issues
Edward Vanhoutte – EIC DSH – 18 March 2015 – #OJD15
Funding & Academic Reality:
• International & Interdisciplinary Collaborative Research• Research• Travel• Workshops• Conferences• Tools
Edward Vanhoutte – EIC DSH – 18 March 2015 – #OJD15
Publication of Results left to:
• Academic Publishers• Scholarly Journals• Citation• Impact Factor• Prestige
Edward Vanhoutte – EIC DSH – 18 March 2015 – #OJD15
Issue 2008/23 2009/24 2010/25 2011/26 2012/27 2013/28 2014/291 10 10 8 8 6 12 82 5 10 8 6 7 17 93 10 11 5 12 7 10 164 5 7 7 6 7 20 8
Tota l 30 38 28 32 27 59 41
Pressure is high:
→ Huge back-log of unsollicited papersReason: Journal page budget
→ Makes Thematic Issues even more attractive
Edward Vanhoutte – EIC DSH – 18 March 2015 – #OJD15
Solutions:
• Page Budget ↗ = Subscription Fee ↗• Supplementary Issue = External Funding
Problem:
• Citation• Impact Factor
Edward Vanhoutte – EIC DSH – 18 March 2015 – #OJD15
Issue 2015/30
1 10
2 9
3 10
4 10
Suppl 18
Total 57
2015:
2016:• 2 Thematic Issues in production
Edward Vanhoutte – EIC DSH – 18 March 2015 – #OJD15
Positive & Negative Impact on:
• Identity of the Journal• Readership• Authors• Reviewers• Subject Community/-ies
Edward Vanhoutte – EIC DSH – 18 March 2015 – #OJD15
Identity of the Journal
• opportinuty to widen its purview• risk of losing scope
Edward Vanhoutte – EIC DSH – 18 March 2015 – #OJD15
Readership
• opportunity to reach out, explore & attract new readership
• risk of losing interest of ‘traditional’ subscribers who don't relate to the published themes
Edward Vanhoutte – EIC DSH – 18 March 2015 – #OJD15
Authors
• opportunity to involve & attract new authors
• risk of frustrating 'regular' authors by delaying publication of their papers to next non-thematic issue
Edward Vanhoutte – EIC DSH – 18 March 2015 – #OJD15
Subject Community/-ies
• opportunity to involve & attract new subject communities
• risk of losing interest of subject communities because of• rejection of their proposal• publication of issues outside of
interest
Edward Vanhoutte – EIC DSH – 18 March 2015 – #OJD15
Conclusions
Thematic issues are precious and precarious to• the journal• the readership• the authors• subject communities
→ Difficult balancing act
The Impact of Special Issueson Journal Management
Edward VanhoutteEditor-in-ChiefDigital Scholarship in the Humanities
[email protected]@dshjournal