Library and information science journals: An editor survey

& Technical Services 29 (2005) 4–32

Library and information science journals:

An editor survey

Christian SchloeglT, Wolfgang Petschnig

University of Graz, Institute of Information Science, Universitaetsstr. 15/F3, A-8010 Graz, Austria

Abstract

This article presents an editor survey of 48 international and German-language LIS journals. Data

were collected by means of a standardized questionnaire from the (chief) editors of the journals in

spring 2003. The results of the study show that the market of LIS journals, like others, has been very

dynamic in the past 10 years. Practitioners play an important role as authors and even more as readers.

A vast majority of the readers work in the public sector; most of them are librarians or scholars.

Interestingly, science communication does not cross language community borders easily. In addition,

scientific standards (kind of review procedure, extensive list of references, etc.) are higher for English

language journals than for German ones.

D 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Editor survey; Journal study; Journal profiles; Library and information science (LIS)

1. Introduction

Journal studies serve different purposes. They are used by scholars for decisions

concerning the submission of manuscripts, by journal editors for monitoring the quality of

their publications, and by librarians for collection management decisions ([1], p. 1004). Many

studies have been conducted in various disciplines in the past. Library and information

1464-9055/$ -

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Library Collections, Acquisitions,

see front matter D 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

cats.2004.12.004

ing author.

ress: [email protected] (C. Schloegl).

C. Schloegl, W. Petschnig / Libr. Coll. Acq. & Tech. Serv. 29 (2005) 4–32 5

science (LIS) is probably one of the best explored fields in this respect. Nisonger [2]

identified 178 published journal rankings between 1952 and 1997 that analyzed LIS journals.

Most of them were citation-based rankings.

Besides citation analysis, periodicals can be investigated by surveying specialized

samples with regard to the journals they read and/or by asking presumed experts about

their (subjective) perceptions. While there are various examples for reader and perception

studies (e.g., [3–5], just to mention some of the most recent studies), the authors have

hardly any empirical evidence where (also) the editors were consulted. One of the few

exceptions are the journal studies of Nord and Nord [6] and Vastag and Montabon [7].

This research gap is to be reduced further with this contribution. It presents a detailed

analysis of LIS journals from the editors’ perspectives. For this purpose data were

collected concerning general journal characteristics, editorial board, authors, review

process, and the readers.

2. Methodology

The study is a continuation of a scientometric analysis of 50 international and

German-language LIS journals by Schloegl and Stock. [8] This was a joint project of the

Department of Information Science at the University of Applied Sciences Cologne and

the Institute of Information Science at the University of Graz. [9] It consisted of a reader

survey [10] and a citation analysis [11]. After the readers’ and (citing) authors’ prospects,

the LIS journals are introduced by various criteria from the point of view of the (chief)

editors.

The same population was used as in the previous study. It included 40 international and the

10 leading German-language LIS periodicals. The international LIS periodicals were chosen

from the journal subject category bInformation Science and Library ScienceQ of the Journal

Citation Reports (JCR). Journals that dealt with peripheral aspects of information science

(e.g., medical informatics) were not considered.

Because two journals had ceased meanwhile, the (chief) editors of the remaining 48

LIS periodicals were approached in spring 2003. Table A1 in Appendix A lists the

journals whose editors were contacted. The questionnaires were dispatched both electroni-

cally and in a printed version through the post. The addressees who did not answer got a

reminder email after some weeks. In a few cases the editor in chief had changed. Sometimes

we were referred to other people. With these time delays, data collection lasted until early

autumn. All in all 43 editors (nearly 90% of those who were contacted) returned the

questionnaire.

In order to guarantee a high level of reliability, the preliminary project report was mailed to

all participants of the survey in September 2004. The editors were asked to check all the data

of their journals and to send a short email if they wanted to make corrections. In a few cases

in which data seemed to be implausible (e.g., because of misinterpretation of a question in the

questionnaire) the related editors were requested to verify them. Altogether nine editors made

minor changes.

C. Schloegl, W. Petschnig / Libr. Coll. Acq. & Tech. Serv. 29 (2005) 4–326

3. Results

The results are structured as follows:

! general journal characteristics;! online access;

! readership structure;

! editorial board and article review procedure; and

! publication of articles and authorship.

In the case of a question not answered by one of the 43 respondents, the number of

mentions will be indicated explicitly. For some questions it was possible to gather the data

from the Web sites of those journals whose editors did not participate in the survey.

3.1. General journal characteristics

3.1.1. Journal category

As can be seen in Fig. 1, the vast majority of the journals (86%) publish predominantly

original papers. Proceedings (two periodicals) as well as review journals (covering mainly

review articles) and newsletters (one periodical each) can be found relatively seldom. Three

of the responding editors who could not assign their journal to one of these categories chose

bother.Q

3.1.2. Structure of the journals

The average LIS journal (n = 39) is structured as follows:

! papers: 70%;

! news, coverage of events: 7%;

Fig. 1. Journal category (n = 48) (for details, see Table A1 in Appendix A).


! book reviews: 8%;

! editorial, masthead, house advertising: 5%;

! advertisements: 5%;

! product reviews: 2%; and

! other: 3%.

This distribution varies among journals and depends on the journal category. For instance,

a newsletter reports more about news and events by self-conception. Proceedings and review

journals usually have a very high proportion of articles. For journals that publish original

articles this share is normally high but depends on the journal policy as well (for details, see

Table A3 in Appendix A).

3.1.3. Subject distribution of the journals

The mean subject orientation of the journals is not surprising because of the way of journal

selection (see above). General aspects of librarianship and documentation cover more than

70% of the discussed topics (see Fig. 2). However, there are a few journals with a different

emphasis. Econtent deals more with business information, while College and Research

Libraries and Government Information Quarterly have their focus in public administration

and information policy. Reference and User Services Quart (RQ), Journal of Education for

Library and Information Science, Scientometrics, and Information Processing and Manage-

ment are among those journals with the highest mentions for another subject specialization.

3.1.4. Change of publisher

The big changes in scholarly publishing in the previous years did not spare LIS journals.

More than half of the journals whose editors filled in this question (22 out of 40) changed the

publisher at least once within the last 10 years. The changes lead to a stronger concentration

among the publishers. Fig. 3 shows the distribution of the publishers among the 48 LIS

periodicals. As can be seen, Emerald and Elsevier publish most journals (seven each). In spite

of the dominance of a few companies, there are many publishers (20) who distribute only one

journal.

Fig. 2. Subject distribution of an average journal (n = 40) (for details, see Table A2 in Appendix A).

Fig. 3. Share of publishers among 48 LIS journals (Source: Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory-On Disc, Summer 2002)

(for details, see Table A1 in Appendix A).


3.1.5. Placement of ads

Slightly less than the half of the analyzed journals (20 or 49%) do not place ads. These are

mostly journals with a stronger research focus (see Table 1).

Table 1

Journals without ads

Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST)

ASLIB Proceedings

Bibliothek. Forschung und Praxis

Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science

Electronic Library

Information Processing and Management

The Information Society

Information Technology and Libraries

Interlending and Document Supply

International Journal for Information Management

International Symposium Informationswissenschaft (ISI)—Proceedings

Journal of Documentation

Journal of Education for Library and Information Science

Journal of Information Science

Knowledge Organisation

Library and Information Science Research

Library Hi Tech

Libri

Program: Electronic Library and Information Systems

Scientometrics


3.1.6. Availability of abstracts

Thirty-six out of 42 journals publish their articles with an abstract; in 35 periodicals it is

obligatory for the authors to deliver an abstract with the article. Nearly all journals of which

the publication language is not English provide a bilingual abstract (for details, see Table A4

in Appendix A).

3.2. Online access

The question concerning online access was answered by 38 editors. For the remaining nine

journals with a homepage, the data were collected from their Web sites. The result shows that

it is necessary to differentiate in this matter. The table of contents of the current issue is

available for 40 journals (85%), that of archived issues for 37 journals (79%). More restrictive

is the free availability of electronic abstracts: for 26 journals (55%), both the latest issue and

older numbers. However, there is open access to the full text of the present and archived

issues for only four journals (9%). The full text archive of articles is searchable at no charge

for three periodicals (6%). As can be seen in Fig. 4, the last values are much higher if one also

includes the journals’ subscribers (of the print version) and registered users (restricted access).

3.3. Structure of readership

3.3.1. Public versus private sector

Nearly all of the 26 respondents who replied to this question indicated that most of their

readers are from the public sector. Only the readers of six journals (ASLIB Proceedings,

Information Processing and Management, Information—Wissenschaft und Praxis (NfD),

JASIST, Journal of Scholarly Publishing, and Online) were estimated to come from each of

the two sectors in equal parts. On the average three out of four readers work in the public

sector (for details, see Table A5 in Appendix A).

Fig. 4. Free online access to journals (n = 47).


3.3.2. Professional background

As Fig. 5 shows, the outcome of the previous question seems to be plausible because

scientific librarians (34%), public librarians (10%), and LIS scholars (33%), all of whom can

be associated with the public sector, constitute more than three quarters of the analyzed

respondents. Employees from the information industry and documentalists make up only 12%

and 5%, respectively. It must be considered, however, that these are average values (n = 19).

The journals usually concentrate on one of these target groups. For instance, College and

Research Libraries, Zeitschrift fuer Bibliothekswesen und Bibliographie, Information

Technology and Libraries, Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services, Library

Hi Tech, and Bibliotheksdienst are mainly read by scientific librarians while the customers of

Buch und Bibliothek constitute mainly from public libraries. The readership of Journal of

Scholarly Publishing and Password comes mainly from the information industry. Journal of

Education for Library and Information Science, Journal of Librarianship and Information

Science, ISI Proceedings, Knowledge Organisation, and JASIST are primarily picked up by

LIS scholars.

3.3.3. Practitioners versus scholars

Twenty-two editors responded to this issue. According to their estimates, 64% of the

readers are practitioners, 36% have a scientific background on average. Table 2 lists the

journals with the highest share of practitioners, Table 3 those periodicals with a proportion of

scientists of more than 50% among their readers.

3.3.4. Regional versus international readers

The clientele of the analyzed journals (n = 32) consists mainly of regional readers. Or more

precisely, the publishing language of the journals corresponds to the mother tongue of 84% of

the readers on average. There are only three journals (Program: Electronic Library and

Fig. 5. Main field of activity of readers (n = 19) (for details, see Table A6 in Appendix A).

Table 2

Journals with the highest share of practitioners among the readers (for details, see Table A7 in Appendix A)

Percentage of practitioners

Journal of Scholarly Publishing 100

Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services 95

Zeitschrift fuer Bibliothekswesen und Bibliographie 95

ABI-Technik 90

Bibliotheksdienst 90

College and Research Libraries 90

Library Journal 90

BIT Online 80

Buch und Bibliothek 80

Password 80

Program: Electronic Library and Information Systems 80

Reference and User Serv Quart (RQ) 80

Econtent 75

Library Hi Tech 75

Information-Wissenschaft und Praxis (NfD) 60


Information Systems, Libri, and Scientometrics) where the mother tongue of at least half of

the readers is not the publication language (English). As expected, the regional orientation of

German-language LIS journals (n = 10) is even stronger: 89% of their readers are from

German-speaking countries (see Fig. 6).

The strong local orientation is confirmed by the results of the previous survey.

Accordingly, German-language information professionals read mainly LIS journals published

in their mother tongue. The citation analysis revealed only a low level of unidirectional

information flow between international and German-language LIS periodicals ([8], p. 1160).

3.4. Editorial board and article review procedure

This sector covers the size and the composition of the editorial board and details

concerning the article review procedure.

Table 3

Journals with a share of more than 50% of scientists among the readers (for details, see Table A7 in Appendix A)

Percentage of scientists

Information Processing and Management 100

The Information Society 90

International Symposium Informationswissenschaft (ISI)—Proceedings 90

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science 80

Knowledge Organisation 75

Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (JASIST) 65

Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science 60

Fig. 6. Correspondence of publication language and (non) mother tongue of readers—German-language (n1 = 10)

versus non-German-language journals (n2 = 22) (for details, see Table A8 in Appendix A).


3.4.1. Editorial board

Seventeen of the analyzed journals (40%) have an editorial board with up to 10 members

(see Fig. 7). The journals with the most extensive editorial boards are the following:

! Journal of Information Science; Library and Information Science Research; Library

Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services; Libri; and Social Science Information

(between 21 and 25 members);

! Information Processing and Management and The Information Society (between 26 and

30 members); and

Fig. 7. Size of the editorial board (n = 42) (for more details, see Table A9 in Appendix A).


! ISI Proceedings; JASIST; Knowledge Organisation; and Scientometrics (more than 30

members).

Three quarters of the editorial board members of the considered journals (n = 37) are from

the publishing country of the particular periodical. Only for some journals (Knowledge

Organisation, Scientometrics, Libri, Library Hi Tech, Library and Information Science

Research, Electronic Library, Journal of Information Science, and Review of Information

Science and Technology) most of them are from abroad. If one considers the composition of

the editorial board as a further indicator for the international orientation of a journal, this

raises the question if science communication in LIS takes place on an intensive international

level.

3.4.2. Review procedure

Concerning the selection of the submitted papers, 15 journals use peer review and 14 blind

peer review (see Fig. 8). Table 4 lists those journals that apply the more demanding version of

peer review. It includes only one German-language periodical. In 11 cases, the manuscripts

are reviewed by bbodiesQ of the journal.

The evaluation of an article is usually accomplished by two referees (n = 38) and takes 2

months on the average (n = 36), a time period that is relatively short.

The mean percentage of rejected papers is 37% (n = 35). This rate can vary considerably

among the journals. Table 5 displays those journals in which more than half of the submitted

papers are not published. On the other end of the continuum, a low rejection rate, most of the

German-language LIS journals can be found.

An extensive list of references is a sign of how much existing literature is considered by

the publishing author. Thus, it can be regarded as an indicator for the scientific quality of a

contribution. For the editors of 14 journals a comprehensive consideration of the literature is

necessary (see Table 6), for 18 editors it is desired. There is only one German-language LIS

Fig. 8. Review procedure (n = 42) (for details, see Table A10 in Appendix A).

Table 4

Journals with a blind peer review procedure (for details, see Table A10 in Appendix A)


College and Research Libraries

International Symposium Informationswissenschaft (ISI)—Proceedings

Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (JASIST)

Journal of Education for Library and Information Science

Journal of Academic Librarianship




Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services

Library Hi Tech

Library Resources and Technical Services

Reference and User Serv Quart (RQ)

Social Science Information


periodical (ISI Proceedings) where a comprehensive bibliography is compulsory. This shows

again that the quality standards for the international journals are higher. This result is also

supported by the citation analysis where the average number of references was more than

twice as high for international (18.3) as for German-language periodicals (8.7) ([8], p. 1158).

Only in five journals the length of the reference list is no precondition for a paper to be

published. A total of 37 editors answered this question.

Even if a manuscript is not rejected, this does not mean that it needs no revision by its

authors. The responses to this question show that nearly two thirds of the articles are subject

to changes on average (n = 37) (for details, see Table A11 in Appendix A).

3.5. Publication of articles and authorship

Usually the manuscripts will not be published immediately after acceptance. On average it

takes 6 months until a paper appears in print in one of the 38 LIS journals whose editors

responded to this question. Tables 7 and 8 list the journals with the longest and, respectively,

shortest backlogs. It can be recognized that there is a big difference in this point as well. The

Table 5

Journals with a rejection rate of more than 50% (for details, see Table A11 in Appendix A)

Government Information Quarterly

The Information Society


Online

International Journal for Information Management



Library Journal

Table 6

Journals in which an extensive list of references is necessary (n = 37) (for details, see Table A10 in Appendix A)

Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST)



Information Processing and Management

Internationales Symposium Informationswissenschaft (ISI)—Proceedings

Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (JASIST)




Libri

Program: Electronic Library and Information Systems

Reference and User Serv Quart (RQ)

Scientometrics



longest lag was estimated to be 21 months (Journal of Education for Library and Information

Science). The other extreme is Password where an article is usually published 1 month after

acceptance.

The authorship of the 38 analyzed journals distributes nearly equally between scientists

and practitioners. However, there occur big differences at journal level again. Table 9 includes

those journals in which mainly LIS scholars publish. Table 10 displays periodicals where at

least three out of four authors are practitioners.

The share of scientists is equal or a little higher among the authors than among the readers

for those journals with both mentions available. This is reflected by a high correlation

coefficient of 0.94.

Table 7

Journals with a backlog of half a year on the minimum (for details, see Table A11 in Appendix A)

No. of months

Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 21.0

Knowledge Organisation 15.0

The Information Society 12.0

International Journal for Information Management 12.0

Reference and User Serv Quart (RQ) 12.0

Social Science Information 9.0

Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST) 8.0

Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science 7.5

Government Information Quarterly 7.0

Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (JASIST) 6.0

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science 6.0

Library Hi Tech 6.0

Library Resources and Technical Services 6.0

Scientometrics 6.0

Table 8

Journals with the shortest backlogs (for details, see Table A11 in Appendix A)

No. of months

Password 1.0

Buch und Bibliothek 1.5

Bibliotheksdienst 2.0

Library Journal 2.0

BIT Online 2.5

ProLibris 2.5

Zeitschrift fuer Bibliothekswesen und Bibliographie 2.5


The majority (32) of the journals do not pay a royalty to the authors. Only eight journals

remunerate their authors. Nearly all of them have a practitioner focus (for details, see Table

A12 in Appendix A).

4. Summary

The aim of this survey is to describe international and German-language LIS journals by

means of various criteria. For this purpose the (chief) editors of the 10 most important

German-language journals and of 38 international journals were contacted. Only international

journals with a primary focus on information and library science were selected from the

corresponding subject category of the JCR. The questionnaire was returned by 43 editors,

which approximates a response rate of 90%.

The results can be summarized as follows: The vast majority of the journals publish

predominantly original papers. On average 70% of all contributions are papers. News,

Table 9

Journals with a minimum share of three quarters of scientists among the authors (for details, see Table A12 in

Appendix A)

Percentage of scientists

Information Processing and Management 100

Information Technology and Libraries 100

The Information Society 97

International Symposium Informationswissenschaft (ISI)—Proceedings 90

Journal of Information Science 90

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science 90

Scientometrics 90

Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science 85

Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 85

Annual Review of Information Science 80

Journal of Documentation 80

Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (JASIST) 80

Knowledge Organisation 75

Libri 75

Table 10

Journals with a minimum share of three quarters of practitioners among the authors (for details, see Table A12 in

Appendix A)

Percentage of practitioners

Journal of Scholarly Publishing 100

Online 100

Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services 95

ASLIB Proceedings 90

Bibliotheksdienst 90

Interlending and Document Supply 90

ABI-Technik 80

Bibliothek. Forschung und Praxis 80

BIT Online 80

Buch und Bibliothek 80

College and Research Libraries 80

Library Resources and Technical Services 80

ProLibris 80

Zs f Bibliothekswesen und Bibliographie 80

Econtent 75

Library Hi Tech 75

Password 75


coverage of events (7%), book reviews (8%), and editorials, mastheads, and in-house

advertising (5%) have much smaller shares. The category of a journal has a strong influence

on its structure. For instance, newsletters have a higher proportion of news and events by

definition. Advertisements are placed in slightly more than half of the journals.

The market of LIS journals, like others, has been very dynamic in the past 10 years. More

than half of the analyzed journals changed publishers at least once during this period.

Nevertheless, the LIS journal market is not as oligopolistic as one would think. Though

Emerald and Elsevier have the highest market share, there are still many publishers who

distribute one journal only.

Open online access to current or archived issues is only granted by a small minority of

journals. Usually access is restricted to parts of journal papers (table of contents, abstracts).

Subscription to the print version is a necessary precondition in many cases.

Three out of four readers of the journals whose editors responded to this question work in

the public sector. This is consistent with their professional backgrounds. Most of them are

academic librarians (34%) and LIS scholars (33%). A distinction can be made between

journals that are mainly read by practitioners (the majority of journals) and those that have a

higher proportion of scientists among their readers. The vast majority of the journals target

regional markets. The publishing language of the journals is the mother tongue of 84% of the

readers on average. This share is even higher for the German-language LIS periodicals

(89%).

Many journals have a small editorial board (up to 10 members). Mainly the scientifically

prestigious journals have extensive editorial boards. Most editorial boards consist of members

who are mainly from the publishing country of the particular journal. This corresponds with


the regional composition of readers. Consequently, it seems that science communication in

LIS does not take place on a strong international level.

Most of the journals have established peer review or blind peer review procedures.

Interestingly, the manuscripts of nearly all German-language journals are reviewed by

bbodiesQ of the journal indicating lower scientific standards. The evaluation of an article is

usually accomplished by two referees. Extensive lists of references are necessary for more

than a third of the analyzed journals, usually for those of high scientific reputation, and

desired for nearly half of the journals. The respondents estimated the duration of the review

process to be 2 months on average, which seems surprisingly short. Approximately one-third

of the submitted papers are rejected. However, there are big variations among the journals.

The mean revision rate is much higher (two thirds of the articles).

Usually it takes 6 months after acceptance until manuscripts are published, again with big

variations among the journals. Authorship of journals divides nearly equally into practitioners

and scholars. However, a clear distinction can be made between journals with predominantly

publishing scholars and those with a higher share of writing practitioners. Only one-fifth of

the journals pay royalties to their authors.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Peter Lea from Manchester Metropolitan University and

Norbert Berger from the University of Graz for proofreading the text of this article.

Appendix A

Table A1

LIS periodicals included in the survey (n = 48)

Journal Publishera Languagea Journal category

ABI-Technik Verlag Neuer Merkur GmbH German Original articles (pred.)

Annual Review of Information

Science and Tech. (ARIST)

Information Today, Inc. English Review Journal

ASLIB Proceedings Emerald English Original articles (pred.)

Bibliothek. Forschung und Praxis K.G. Saur Verlag KG German Original articles (pred.)

Bibliotheksdienst Deutsches Bibliotheksinstitut German Original articles (pred.)

BIT Online DINGES and FRICK GmbH German Original articles (pred.)

Buch und Bibliothek Bock und Herchen Verlag German Original articles (pred.)

Canadian Journal of Information

and Library Science

University of Toronto Press English, French Original articles (pred.)

College and Research Libraries American Library Association English Original articles (pred.)

EContent Information Today, Inc. English Other

Electronic Library Emerald English Original articles (pred.)

Government Information Quarterly Elsevier English Original articles (pred.)


Information Processing and

Management

Elsevier English Original articles (pred.)

The Information Society Taylor and Francis Inc English Original articles (pred.)

Information Technology and

Libraries

American Library Association English Other

Interlending and Document Supply Emerald English Original articles (pred.)

International Journal of Information

Management


International Symposium

Informationswiss.

(ISI)—Proceedings

UVK Verlagsgesellschaft German Proceedings

Journal of Academic Librarianship Elsevier English Original articles (pred.)

Journal of Documentation Emerald English Original articles (pred.)

Journal of Education for Library

and Information Science

Association for LIS Education English Original articles (pred.)

Journal of Government

InformationbElsevier English Original articles (pred.)

Journal of Information Ethics McFarland and Company, Inc. English Original articles (pred.)

Journal of Information Science CSA English Original articles (pred.)

Journal of Librarianship and

Information Science (JOLIS)

CSAc English Original articles (pred.)

Journal of Scholarly Publishing University of Toronto Press English Original articles (pred.)

Journal of the Am. Society

for Info Science and Tech.

(JASIST)

Wiley English Original articles (pred.)

Knowledge Organisation Ergon Verlag English Original articles (pred.)

Library and Information

Science Research


Library and Information Scienceb Mita Society for LIS Japanese,

English

Original articles (pred.)


and Technical Services


Library Hi Tech Emerald English Original articles (pred.)

Library Journal Reed Business Information English Other

Library Quarterlyb University of Chicago Press English Original articles (pred.)

Library Resources and Technical

Services

American Library Association English Original articles (pred.)

Library Trendsb Graduate School of LIS English Original articles (pred.)

Libri K.G. Saur Verlag KG English Original articles (pred.)

NfD. Information-Wissenschaft und

Praxis NfD

Deutsche Gesellschaft

f InfoWiss

German Original articles (pred.)

Online Information Today, Inc. English Original articles (pred.)

Online Information Review Emerald English Original articles (pred.)

Password Bredemeier German Newsletter

Table A1 (continued)

(continued on next page)



Proceedings of the ASIS Ann

MeetingbInformation Today English Proceedings

Program: Electronic Library

and Information Systems

Emerald English Original articles (pred.)

ProLibris Peter Pomp GmbH German Original articles (pred.)

Reference and User Services

Quarterly (RQ)

American Library

Association

English Original articles (pred.)

Scientometrics Kluwer English Original articles (pred.)

Social Science Information Sage Publications Ltd. French, English Original articles (pred.)

Zs f Bibliothekswesen und

Bibliographie

Vittorio Klostermann German Original articles (pred.)

a Source: Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory-On Disc, Summer 2002.b Questionnaire not returned, data were gathered from the journal’s Web site for some questions.c JOLIS is published by Sage Publications now.


Table A2

Subject orientation of the journals (n = 40)

Journal LIS,

general (%)

Business

info (%)

Law info, public

administration (%)

Medical

info (%)

Other

(%)

ABI-Technik 95 0 0 0 5

ARIST 60 10 10 10 10

ASLIB Proceedings 70 5 5 10 10

Bibliothek. Forschung und Praxis 100 0 0 0 0

Bibliotheksdienst 90 0 10 0 0

BIT Online 100 0 0 0 0

Buch und Bibliothek 100 0 0 0 0

Canadian Journal of Information and

Library Science

50 5 15 5 25

College and Research Libraries 0 0 100 0 0

EContent 10 80 5 5 0

Electronic Library 100 0 0 0 0

Government Information Quarterly 5 0 95 0 0

Information Processing and Management 40 0 0 0 60

Information Technology and Libraries 100 0 0 0 0

Interlending and Document Supply 100 0 0 0 0

ISI Proceedings 100 0 0 0 0

Journal of Academic Librarianship 100 0 0 0 0

Journal of Documentation 100 0 0 0 0

Journal of Education for Library and

Information Science

15 0 0 0 85

Journal of Information Ethics 50 10 20 0 20

Journal of Information Science 60 10 10 10 10


Journal LIS,

general (%)

Business

info (%)

Law info, public

administration (%)

Medical

info (%)

Other

(%)

Journal of Librarianship and Information

Science

100 0 0 0 0

Journal of Scholarly Publishing 40 40 20 0 0

JASIST 100 0 0 0 0

Knowledge Organisation 100 0 0 0 0

Library and Information Science Research 95 0 0 0 5

Library Collections, Acquisitions, and

Technical Services

100 0 0 0 0

Library Hi Tech 90 0 10 0 0

Library Journal 40 10 10 0 40

Library Resources and Technical Services 100 0 0 0 0

Libri 90 0 5 5 0

NfD. Information-Wissenschaf t und Praxis 90 0 0 5 5

Online 25 25 10 10 30

Password 50 30 10 10 0

Program: Electronic Library and

Information Systems

100 0 0 0 0

ProLibris 80 0 10 0 10

Reference and User Serv Quart (RQ) 5 2 2 0 91

Scientometrics 30 0 0 0 70

Social Science Information 100 0 0 0 0

Zs f Bibliothekswesen und Bibliographie 92 0 3 0 5


Table A3

Structure of journals (n = 39)

Journal Editorial,

etc. (%)

News,

events

(%)

Papers

(%)

Book

reviews

(%)

Product

reviews

(%)

Ads

(%)

Other

(%)

ABI-Technik 2 10 50 10 10 10 8

Annual Review of Information Science

and Technology

5 0 95 0 0 0 0

ASLIB Proceedings 1 0 99 0 0 0 0

Bibliothek. Forschung und Praxis 8 4 60 28 0 0 0

Bibliotheksdienst 10 25 45 5 5 10 0

BIT Online 5 20 35 5 5 25 5


Library Science

16 8 68 8 0 0 0

College and Research Libraries 2 0 80 10 0 8 0

EContent 10 65 0 5 20 0

Electronic Library 12 19 64 5 0 0 0

Government Information Quarterly 5 0 80 10 0 5 0

Information Processing and Management 10 0 80 0 0 0 10

The Information Society 5 0 80 15 0 0 0



Journal Editorial,

etc. (%)

News,

events

(%)

Papers

(%)

Book

reviews

(%)

Product

reviews

(%)

Ads

(%)

Other

(%)

Information Technology and Libraries 0 0 70 10 20 0 0

Interlending and Document Supply 9 20 65 6 0 0 0

ISI Proceedings 5 0 85 0 0 0 10

Journal of Documentation 0 0 90 10 0 0 0


Information Science

1 1 68 5 0 0 25

Journal of Information Ethics 2 0 80 10 0 0 8

Journal of Information Science 0 0 100 0 0 0 0


Information Science

10 0 75 15 0 0 0

Journal of Scholarly Publishing 2 0 90 5 1 2 0

JASIST 1 0 93 6 0 1 0

Knowledge Organisation 5 5 85 5 0 0 0

Library and Information Science

Research

15 20 40 15 0 0 10


Technical Services

1 0 94 4 0 1 0

Library Hi Tech 3 0 95 2 0 0 0

Library Journal 5 10 10 20 0 50 5

Library Resources and Technical Services 2 0 90 6 0 2 0

Libri 2 0 90 0 0 0 8

NfD. Information-Wissenschaft und Praxis 10 20 45 5 5 15 0

Online 6 5 58 3 10 18 0

Password 5 45 25 5 10 10 0


Information Systems

6 19 50 25 0 0 0

ProLibris 10 30 40 10 0 0 10

Reference and User Serv Quart (RQ) 5 0 60 20 0 15 0

Scientometrics 2 1 95 2 0 0 0

Social Science Information 1 0 98 0 0 1 0

Zs f Bibliothekswesen und Bibliographie 3 18 39 13 0 5 22


Table A4

Journals that publish their articles with/without an abstract (n = 42)

Journal Abstract Bilingual abstract

ABI-Technik yes yes

Annual Review of Information Science no

ASLIB Proceedings yes

Bibliothek. Forschung und Praxis yes yes

Bibliotheksdienst no

BIT Online yes yes


Journal Abstract Bilingual abstract

Buch und Bibliothek yesa yes

Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science yes yes

College and Research Libraries yes

EContent yes

Electronic Library yes

Government Inf Quarterly yes

Information Processing and Management yes

The Information Society yes

Information Technology and Libraries yes

Interlending and Document Supply yes

International Journal for Information Management yes

ISI Proceedings yes yes

Journal of Academic Librarianship yes

Journal of Documentation yes

Journal of Education for Library and Information Science yes

Journal of Information Ethics no

Journal of Information Science yes

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science yes

Journal of Scholarly Publishing yes

JASIST yes

Knowledge Organisation yes

Library and Information Science Research yes

Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services yes

Library Hi Tech yes

Library Journal no

Library Resources and Technical Services yes

Libri yes

NfD. Information-Wissenschaft und Praxis yes yes

Online no

Password yes yes

Program: Electronic Library and Information Systems yes

ProLibris no

Reference and User Serv Quart (RQ) yes

Scientometrics yes

Social Science Information yes yes

Zs f Bibliothekswesen und Bibliographie yes yes

a Abstract not obligatory.


Table A5

Structure of readership—public versus private sector (n = 26)

Journal Percentage of

public sector

Percentage of

private sector

ABI-Technik 70 30

ASLIB Proceedings 50 50




public sector

Percentage of

private sector

Bibliotheksdienst 90 10

BIT Online 80 20

Buch und Bibliothek 80 20

Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science 80 20

College and Research Libraries 70 30

EContent 75 25

Information Processing and Management 50 50

Information Technology and Libraries 85 15

Interlending and Document Supply 90 10

International Symposium Informationswissenschaf t (ISI)—Proceedings 90 10

Journal of Documentation 72 28

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science 95 5

Journal of Scholarly Publishing 50 50

JASIST 50 50

Knowledge Organisation 90 10

Library Hi Tech 75 25

Library Journal 75 25

NfD. Information-Wissenschaft und Praxis 50 50

Online 50 50

Password 80 20

Program: Electronic Library and Information Systems 87 13

ProLibris 90 10

Reference and User Serv Quart (RQ) 80 20

Zs f Bibliothekswesen und Bibliographie 100 0


Table A6

Structure of readership—main field of activity (n = 19)


Documentalists

Percentage

of scientific

librarians

Percentage

of public

librarians

Percentage

of information

economy

Percentage

of LIS

scholars

Percentage

of others

Bibliotheksdienst 10 50 30 5 5 0

BIT Online – – – – – –

Buch und Bibliothek 0 40 55 0 0 5

Canadian Journal

of Info and Library Science

0 10 10 20 40 20

College and Research

Libraries

0 90 0 0 0 10


Management

0 0 0 0 40 60

Information Technology

and Libraries

0 80 5 2 8 5

ISI Proceedings 5 5 0 5 85 0



Documentalists

Percentage

of scientific

librarians

Percentage

of public

librarians

Percentage

of information

economy

Percentage

of LIS

scholars

Percentage

of others

Journal of Education for

Library and Information

Science

0 0 0 0 100 0


Information Science

0 7 3 0 90 0

Journal of Scholarly

Publishing

5 10 0 60 25 0

JASIST 10 15 1 4 70 0

Knowledge Organisation 0 20 0 0 80 0

Library Collections,

Acquisitions, and

Technical Services

0 74 1 20 5 0

Library Hi Tech 0 60 15 10 15 0

Library Journal 15 40 10 10 25 0

NfD. Information-

Wissenschaft und Praxis

30 20 0 25 10 15

Password 20 0 0 60 20 0

ProLibris 0 30 50 10 10 0


Bibliographie

0 90 5 5 0 0


Table A7

Structure of readership—practitioners versus scholars (n = 22)


practitioners

Percentage of

scientists

ABI-Technik 90 10


BIT Online 80 20




EContent 75 25


The Information Society 10 90

International Symposium Informationswissenschaft (ISI)—Proc. 10 90

JASIST 35 65




Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services 95 5






practitioners

Percentage of

scientists


Password 80 20



Zeitschrif t fuer Bibliothekswesen und Bibliographie 95 5

Table A8

Structure of readership—regional versus international readers (n = 32 (33a))


mother tongue

Percentage of

non-mother tongue

ABI-Technik 95 5

Bibliothek. Forschung und Praxis 80 20


BIT Online 95 5




EContent 90 10

Electronic Library 100 0

Government Inf Quarterly 75 25


The Information Society 90 10

Interlending and Document Supplya a

International Symposium Informationswissenschaft (ISI)- Proc. 95 5

Journal of Documentation 63 37

Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 90 10

Journal of Information Ethics 99 1



JASIST 100 0


Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services 75 25



Library Resources and Technical Services 90 10

Libri 37 63


Password 90 10


ProLibris 95 5


Scientometrics 30 70

Zs f Bibliothekswesen und Bibliographie 75 25

a Journal is read by a significant number of non-native English speakers.



Table A9

Size (n = 42) and international composition (n = 37) of editorial board

Journal Size of editorial board Percentage from

�10 11–15 16–20 21–25 26–30 N30 publishing country

ABI-Technik X

Annual Review of Information

Science

X 33

ASLIB Proceedings X 85

Bibliothek. Forschung und Praxis X 100

Bibliotheksdienst X 100

BIT Online X 50

Buch und Bibliothek X 100


Library Science

X 90

College and Research Libraries X 100

EContent X 95

Electronic Library X 23

Government Inf Quarterly X 85


Management

X

The Information Society X 70

Information Technology and Libraries X 100

Interlending and Document Supply X 100

International Journal for Information

Management

X

ISI Proceedings X 80

Journal of Academic Librarianship X 80

Journal of Documentation X 50


Information Science

X 100

Journal of Information Ethics X 100

Journal of Information Science X 33


Information Science

Xa 100a

Journal of Scholarly Publishing X 100

JASIST X 75

Knowledge Organisation X 10


Research

X 20


Technical Services

X 99

Library Hi Tech X 10

Library Journal X 90


Services

X 94

Libri X 10

NfD. Information-Wissenschaft

und Praxis

X 100



Journal Size of editorial board Percentage from

�10 11–15 16–20 21–25 26–30 N30 publishing country

Online X

Password X 100


Information Systems

X 75

ProLibris X 100

Reference and User Serv Quart (RQ) X 100

Scientometrics X 10

Social Science Information X


Bibliographie

X 100

a Six international advisors who play an important role in the journal’s development are not considered in this

data.

Table A10

Review procedure (part 1)

Journal Review

procedure

(n = 42)

No. of

referees

(n = 38)

Extensive

bibliography

(n = 37)

Duration

(no. of months)

(n = 36)

ABI-Technik Peer Review 2 desired 1.5

ARIST Peer Review 3 necessary 1.0

ASLIB Proceedings Peer Review 2 desired 1.0

Bibliothek. Forschung und Praxis Peer Review 2 desired 2.0

Bibliotheksdienst Review by bodies

of journal

2 1.0

BIT Online Review by bodies

of journal

2 desired 1.0

Buch und Bibliothek Review by bodies

of journal

3 desired 1.0

Canadian Journal of Information

and Library Science

Blind Peer Review 2 necessary 1.5

College and Research Libraries Blind Peer Review 2 necessary 2.0

EContent Other

Electronic Library Peer Review 2 desired 1.0

Government Inf Quarterly Peer Review 3 desired 1.5


Management

Peer Review 2 necessary 3.0

The Information Society Peer Review 3 4.0

Information Technology and

Libraries

Review by bodies

of journal

1 3.0

Interlending and Document Supply Peer Review 2 desired 3.0

International Journal for Information

Management

Peer Review 2 3.0



Journal Review

procedure

(n = 42)

No. of

referees

(n = 38)

Extensive

bibliography

(n = 37)

Duration

(no. of months)

(n = 36)

ISI Proceedings Blind Peer Review 2 necessary 2.0

Journal of Academic Librarianship Blind Peer Review 2 desired

Journal of Documentation Blind Peer Review 2 necessary 2.0


Information Science

Blind Peer Review 3 desired 5.0

Journal of Information Ethics Review by bodies

of journal

unconcerned

Journal of Information Science Peer Review desired


Information Science

Peer Review 1 desired 2.0

Journal of Scholarly Publishing Review by bodies

of journal

2 desired 1.0

JASIST Blind Peer Review 2 necessary 2.5

Knowledge Organisation Blind Peer Review 3 necessary 3.5

Library and Information Science 2


Research

Blind Peer Review 3 necessary 1.0


and Technical Services


Library Hi Tech Blind Peer Review 2 desired 2.0

Library Journal Review by bodies

of journal

4 unconcerned 1.0


Services


Libri Review by bodies

of journal

2 necessary 1.7

NfD. Information-Wissenschaft

und Praxis

Review by bodies

of journal

2 desired 1.0

Online other unconcerned

Password Review by bodies

of journal

unconcerned


Information Systems

Peer Review 2 necessary 5.0

ProLibris Review by bodies

of journal

1 unconcerned 1.0

Reference and User Serv Quart (RQ) Blind Peer Review 2 necessary 2.0

Scientometrics Peer Review 2 necessary 1.0

Social Science Information Blind Peer Review 4 necessary 3.0


Bibliographie

Peer Review 2 desired 1.0



Table A11

Review procedure (part 2)


rejection rate

(n = 35)

Percentage of

revision rate

(n = 37)

Backlog

(n = 38)

ABI-Technik 20 50 3.5

Annual Review of Information Science 100 8.0

ASLIB Proceedings 10 80 5.0

Bibliothek. Forschung und Praxis 20 60 4.0

Bibliotheksdienst 10 2.0

BIT Online 20 10 2.5

Buch und Bibliothek 10 10 1.5

Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science 40 100 7.5

College and Research Libraries 66 20 5.0

Electronic Library 10 80 5.5

Government Inf Quarterly 60 75 7.0

Information Processing and Management 50 90 3.0

The Information Society 60 95 12.0

Interlending and Document Supply 100 4.5

International Journal for Information Management 65 12.0

ISI Proceedings 30 10 3.0

Journal of Documentation 40 60 3.0

Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 35 83 21.0

Journal of Information Ethics 30 10

Journal of Information Science 30 60 3.5

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science 20 90 6.0

Journal of Scholarly Publishing 25 25 3.0

JASIST 45 95 6.0

Knowledge Organisation 20 100 15.0

Library and Information Science Reserach 60 90 4.0

Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services 15 75 3.0

Library Hi Tech 50 90 6.0

Library Journal 80 95 2.0

Library Resources and Technical Services 20 90 6.0

Libri 33 50 3.0

NfD. Information-Wissenschaft und Praxis 15 40 3.0

Online 60 20 3.0

Password 1.0

Program: Electronic Library and Information Systems 40 100 3.0

ProLibris 25 15 2.5

Reference and User Serv Quart (RQ) 25 75 12.0

Scientometrics 50 50 6.0

Social Science Information 75 90 9.0

Zs f Bibliothekswesen und Bibliographie 25 30 2.5


Table A12

Structure of authors (practitioners versus scholars) (n = 38) and royalty (n = 40)


practitioners

Percentage of

scholars

Royalty

ABI-Technik 80 20 Yes

Annual Review of Information Science 20 80 Yes

ASLIB Proceedings 90 10 No

Bibliothek. Forschung und Praxis 80 20 No

Bibliotheksdienst 90 10 No

BIT Online 80 20 Yes

Buch und Bibliothek 80 20 Yes

Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science 15 85 No

College and Research Libraries 80 20 No

EContent 75 25

Electronic Library 30 70 No

Government Inf Quarterly 60 40 No

Information Processing and Management 0 100 No

The Information Society 3 97 No

Information Technology and Libraries 0 100 No

Interlending and Document Supply 90 10 No

International Symposium Informationswissenschaft

(ISI)—Proceedings

10 90 No

Journal of Academic Libarianship No

Journal of Documentation 20 80 No

Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 15 85 No

Journal of Information Ethics Yes

Journal of Information Science 10 90 No

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science 10 90 No

Journal of Scholarly Publishing 100 0 No

JASIST 20 80 No

Knowledge Organisation 25 75 No

Library and Information Science Reserach 40 60 No

Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services 95 5 No

Library Hi Tech 75 25 No

Library Journal 70 30 Yes

Library Resources and Technical Services 80 20 No

Libri 25 75 No

NfD. Information-Wissenschaft und Praxis 50 50 No

Online 100 0 Yes

Password 75 25 Yes

Program: Electronic Library and Information Systems 52 48 No

ProLibris 80 20 No

Reference and User Serv Quart (RQ) 40 60 No

Scientometrics 10 90 No

Social Science Information No

Zs f Bibliothekswesen und Bibliographie 80 20 No



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Documents

Library and information science journals: An editor survey