Electronic Journal Publishing: A Reader
Version 2.0
Published by INASP, 2001
©INASP 2001
http://www.inasp.info
7.5 EJB: Electronic Journal of
Biotechnology
An academic experience with world wide visibility
By: Atilio Bustos Gonzᬥz
E-mail: abustos@ucv.cl
Head of Library System
Universidad Cata de Valpara�
CHILE
Presented on:
Scientific Communication and Publishing In the Information Age
Oxford Workshop, 10 – 12 May 1999
1. EJB Project in brief
EJB is an international
scientific electronic journal (ISSN 0717-3458). It is a national effort
coordinated by CONICYT (National Council for Scientific and Technological
Research - an Official agency of the Chilean Government) in partnership with Universidada Cata de Valpara�, with the purpose to create a new
international experimental scientific journal, born in electronic format only.
EJB, Electronic
Journal of Biotechnology is free of charge for authors and readers. It
publishes in English review articles and research articles related to all areas
of Biotechnology, comprising science molecular biology and the chemistry of the
biological processes to industrial and environmental aspects, as well as
computer applications and international cooperation policies. EJB has an
international Editorial Board, whose Honorary Member is Dr. James D. Watson
(Nobel Prize of Medicine and Physiology 1962) it is integrated by 73 recognised
scientists in 8 main biotechnology areas, representing 24 countries all over
the world. The compromise of EJB teem is to agree the code of ethics and
conduct for electronic publications, recommended in the Conference of Experts,
February 1996 (Joint ICSU Press/UNESCO), in order to “which would spell out the
reciprocal obligations of the scientist and community on such matters as peer
review, citation, integrity and authentication of material, and archiving”. Is
possible visit EJB in and http://ejb.ucv.cl
27.260 visitors
have visited this site since November 1997.
As we are aware that individual efforts are not efficient, Chile will
participate actively in the Brazilian Scielo Project.
(Scientific Electronic Library on Line) [1].
2. EJB in numbers, two years of
experience
Pilot project begins in December 1996.
First issue: march 1998. Four issues published until present.
Next issue: December 1999. Articles published: 27 articles.
Annual budget US$20.000. Total project budget for three years US$62.000.
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Visitant Statistics www.ejb.org |
|||
|
Mouth |
Average # users per day |
# users session |
% session from USA |
|
April 99 |
156 |
4.684 |
41,28% |
|
March 99 |
154 |
2.315 |
39,89% |
|
February 99 |
153 |
1.996 |
38,60% |
|
January 99 |
123 |
1.408 |
29,33% |
|
December 98 |
111 |
1.445 |
36,26% |
|
November 98 |
108 |
1.295 |
35,91% |
|
October 98 |
104 |
523 |
31,16% |
|
August 98 |
137 |
1.069 |
29,56% |
|
July 98 |
65 |
545 |
44,77% |
|
June 98 |
16 |
480 |
37,50% |
|
May 98 |
12 |
363 |
27,82% |
|
April 98 |
55 |
1.322 |
32,82% |
|
Visitant Statistics www.ejb.org |
|||||||||
|
Country |
April 98 |
May 98 |
June 98 |
July 98 |
Aug 98 |
Oct 98 |
Nov 98 |
Dec 98 |
April 99 |
|
USA |
434 |
101 |
180 |
244 |
316 |
163 |
465 |
1.934 |
524 |
|
Chile |
139 |
51 |
74 |
43 |
141 |
86 |
77 |
211 |
194 |
|
UK |
31 |
8 |
6 |
13 |
57 |
9 |
48 |
170 |
65 |
|
Germany |
30 |
27 |
26 |
13 |
36 |
7 |
41 |
94 |
39 |
|
Canada |
14 |
|
35 |
14 |
30 |
6 |
54 |
209 |
25 |
|
Brazil |
10 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
11 |
|
4 |
43 |
21 |
|
Australia |
37 |
18 |
13 |
23 |
35 |
6 |
23 |
67 |
20 |
|
France |
19 |
1 |
5 |
3 |
19 |
8 |
27 |
80 |
20 |
|
Other |
102 |
43 |
24 |
9 |
95 |
29 |
149 |
613 |
90 |
|
TOTAL |
816 |
251 |
366 |
365 |
740 |
314 |
888 |
3.421 |
995 |
Site .org represents 2/3 of the total visitors. Site .cl maintains a similar distribution of origin of
visitors in relation to .org site.
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Type and quantities of papers
published in EJB |
|||||
|
|
April 15, 1998 |
August 15, 1998 |
Decemb 15, 1998 |
April 15, 1999 |
August 15, 1999 |
|
Research papers |
|
1 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
|
Review papers |
5 |
6 |
9 |
6 |
1 |
|
Total |
5 |
6 |
9 |
6 |
1 |
|
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|
|
|
|
|
3. Primary mechanisms for
quality guaranty
The followings aspects related to quality control were defined at
beginning of the project: peer review, citation, integrity and authentication
of material, and archiving. In any of these points the appropriate procedures
are established. However, in our primary vision the peer review play and
important role.
Peer Review
It is important to obtain academic acceptance. It is necessary to
establish public procedures of evaluation and mechanisms for objective the
referee's opinion (see examples in annexes).
The quality of comments and suggestions of referees is perceived as
authors as synonymous of quality. The opinion of authors of reviewed articles,
to produce spontaneous comments to others scientists in relation with the level
of procedures. In this case is necessary to maintain the anonymity of authors
and referees. It is form to produce a virtuous circle.
4. Additional quality control
adopted
With the practice experience new problems were detected and so the need
to develop additional quality control points.
Systematic verification of
citations
A systematic verification, one by one, of citations included in every
article. The authors to introduce involuntary mistakes. For this job the
support of experimented librarian is very pertinent. The purpose of the
citations is to document the source, and to permit the location of the refereed
document, however mistakes at this level produce the cut of information
generation cycle. This type of mistake gives readers a poor opinion of the
journal.
Other recommendations relative
to citations practices
Do not use abbreviations (proper of printed versions limits), use in
form consistent a standardised and friendly citation set of rules (included URL
to others electronic documents).
5. Visibility plan
In this section intent to answer the question of How to make the
journals more accessible in my country, regional and international?
Visibility is the
result of a set of characteristics present of a journal, and the actions of its
editors and publishers, that contribute to the journal to be recognised, read
and cited by the scientific community related to the subject area.
A journal without
visibility disappears due to several reasons. Poor impact, null level of
citation, etc. With poor impact the authors are not willing to contribute with
good-quality articles. With bad articles the well-recognised referees not
accept work in vain.
The new paradigm of the scientific electronic journal allows us to
reconsider the way of making a publication visible. As long as this is not
obtained, one cannot ascertain the success of the journal. Electronic
publishing also represents a challenge, both to the scientific community and to
those responsible for non-profit publishing institutions, and for this way to
increase the visibility of their own scientific contributions.
We are only the beginning of a change, the scientists, too many
publishers, and others professionals, still move in a Galaxy Gutemberg: bi-dimensional, plain imagination, lineal
vision, from left to right. This makes a poor use of hypertext and multimedia
options. In parallel, countries on a different side of the world start with the
development of telecommunication infrastructures. In Latin-American countries,
different national and private organisations create procedures of crowd to get
budget to maintain and develop journals, start with technical assistance to
improve the quality of publications, beginning with decision to professionalise
the publishing activities (in academic and research environment), starting with
projects to develop electronic platforms to support electronic publishing. This
is only in part a technological change, the main change, is a cultural change
to authors, publishers, and readers (all the scientific community).
If one of the initial objectives is to increase the scientific community
participation and to promote the acceptability of electronic media; is
possible develop different activities integrated in a systematic plan, which
including for example: presentations to specialised congress of recognised
leaders in the area, support marketing materials (mouse pad, promotional cards,
etc.), to invite the most prestigious scientists to editorial board, select the
best as possible referees for every article evaluated, to invite the editorial
members to write review articles or editorials, and to get the support of local
scientific and technological organisations.
Elements of a visibility plan:
editorial board composition; presence in abstracts, specialised data bases and
international directories; prestigious enterprises to include publicity in
journal, journal diffusion, journal language, respect for positive formal
aspects of Gutemberg culture, registration the name
at local and international level, associate in cooperative national or regional
projects to locate in a same place all journals of the same good quality (for
example). Scielo Project).
Front to visibility and acceptability the most efficient answer is
quality.
6. Marketing plan
It includes all the elements to increase the visibility of the journals.
It is the right combination of marketing of paper-based journals with new
options of the digital world. In others words, it is a combination of
traditional accepted marketing activities in the academic and research
environment with innovative strategies.
It is to develop a marketing plan, requiring of specialists, with
academic and commercial experience.
It is not possibly to apply and magic formula to obtain good results in
this activity. However, it is positive the marketing activities of others
journals to evaluate with benchmarking methodologies.
7. Financial plan and cost
policies
This section answers the question of how to reduce production and
distribution costs?
Publishing an electronic journal implies create a multidisciplinary work
team. This team requires well-prepared members in scientific publishing,
electronic edition, quality control, infographics,
marketing and financial activities. It is possible to cover different
activities with free-lance personnel. However, for the experience and quality
required, it is convenient to maintain permanent team.
The cost of producing an electronic journal is very similar to the paper
edition. The difference of cost concentrates in dramatic cut printing and
distribution costs. Increase the initial investment in computer equipment and
operational cost to maintain a computer server connected to Internet. In our
case of EJB, the direct incremental cost of every new article published in this
first two years is approximate US$2000, our thinking is possible reduce to
US$1000 in one year. This estimate does not include deep cost.
Prising in electronic media is possible, however is not easy control a
subscription access without participation of intermediaries. One option is
maintain the journal free of charge. In this case to missing this economic
resource. When cut the printing version; cut the interchange with others
equivalent publications. The question ?s the good quality the material received
in exchange?
It is possible to think in innovative forms of financial journals. No
charges to authors, for publishing or include images or multimedia
applications. No charge for subscriptions. It is possible to obtain economic
resources of advertising. It is necessaries to maintain one level of not-extreme
invasive advertising. It is possible to obtain economic resources of local
institutions and internationals grants.
8. Conclusions
To produce an electronic journal in developing countries is not equal a
second class journal. The electronic media and cyberspace is a great
opportunity to obtain visibility, with rigorous procedures of quality and
continuous improvements.
In words of Subbiah Arunachalam,
the “classical sociology of science tells us that science is universal, anyone
anywhere can contribute to knowledge in the sciences and irrespective of who
said it the new finding, if it is reasonable, will be accepted or at least
taken seriously by all. This is the basis of the system of information
exchange.”
Annex 1.
Guidelines for manuscript evaluation
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General Policy |
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Electronic Journal of Biotechnology
publishes research and review papers on all aspects of biotechnology which
have not been previously published, except in the form of an abstract or
preliminary note, and are not under consideration for publication elsewhere. It covers molecular biology, genetic engineering, microbial
biotechnology, plant biotechnology, food biotechnology, animal biotechnology,
marine biotechnology, environmental biotechnology, biotechnology of human
disorders, process biotechnology, industrial applications and biotechnology
policy issues. Manuscripts concerning multidisciplinary research are
particularly welcomed. |
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Code of Ethics of Editors |
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The Journal adheres to a Code of Ethics :
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