Of the 8,700
selected journals currently covered in Web of
Science®, 191 are OA journals. Though small in
comparison to the total number of journals indexed in Web of
Science, the number is quite significant in terms of the
progress made by the OA movement. The Thomson ISI editorial
staff reviews nearly 2,000 journals annually, but only 10-12
percent of the evaluated journals are accepted. The same
established set of criteria that is applied to traditionally
published journals is also applied to OA journals as part of
the selection
process.
"Just as the
internet radically changed how Thomson ISI delivers its
information solutions to the research community, it (the
internet) has also fundamentally changed the practical and
economic realities of publishing," said James Testa, director
of Editorial Development, Thomson ISI. "However, the internet
has not changed the need for the research community to easily
access the most relevant scholarly research, making the
element of selectivity key - the reason why Thomson ISI
employs such rigorous editorial standards."
|
|
Thomson
ISI recently conducted a study of the overall performance of
OA journals as they are added to the mix of scholarly
publications used by the research community. Using ISI
citation metrics such as impact factor and cited half life,
the study focuses on determining whether OA journals perform
differently from other journals in their respective fields.
The study's initial findings indicate that there was no
discernible difference in terms of citation impact or
frequency with which the journal is cited. For the full paper,
visit here.
|
