Indian Journals & Electronic Publishing: Convergence of Trade and Need Swati Bhattacharyya Librarian Indian Institute of Management Calcutta Electronic publishing or e-publishing, at the outset, is a phenomenon between authors and publishing industry. The Internet and a suite of software are playing a pivotal role in this phenomenon. Beyond simply publishing, e-publishing facilitates visibility of and quick access to those publications. As a librarian, however, my concerns are more for access to the products of e-publishing that is books, journals and the likes that are available electronically. Though e-publishing may result into a product which can be available both online and off-line, I will focus here on the publications that are available on the Internet. Importance of technology cannot be denied. However, technology alone does not solve all problems. Development of suitable organizational model which can make best use of technology is as important as the technology itself.

Three Issues of E-publications Access Cost Contents Access, cost and contents are three issues that haunt the users of electronic publications, specifically those which are available on the Internet. There are myths and realities about all these three issues. 4/26/2019 Bhattacharyya-10-24-2008

E-publications - Issues, Myths, and Realities Access Easily accessible Accessibility- a multidimensional complex Cost Cheaper than print As costly as print Only those are provided by the publishers Contents Everything is available 4/26/2019 Bhattacharyya-10-24-2008

ACCESS – whose perspective it is? COST CONTENTS Cost and content also contribute to access; Inhibiting cost is one form of barrier to access; Absence of desired content can turn otherwise technically successful access to meaningless access; ACCESS 4/26/2019 Bhattacharyya-10-24-2008

Visibility and Accessibility Visibility is a necessary condition for accessibility; Technology can facilitate visibility and accessibility from producer’s perspective; Technology alone is not sufficient to ensure visibility and accessibility from user’s perspective; 4/26/2019 Bhattacharyya-10-24-2008

What is necessary? Organizational model of collaboration for content creation and maintenance; Cost model – sustainable for both producers and users; 4/26/2019 Bhattacharyya-10-24-2008

JSTOR Journal STORage; Founded in 1995 and funded by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Now an independent, self-sustaining non-profit organization; Provides full-text searches of digitized back issues of several hundred well-known journals, sometimes dating back to 1665; I am sure that I am not introducing anything new here. Either you are one of the users of JSTOR or have heard its name. But let me take a quick look into the details of JSTOR: 4/26/2019 Bhattacharyya-10-24-2008

Benefits of JSTOR Model JSTOR follows “big deal” model; But libraries are charged based on their sizes; With JSTOR one can re-think in a completely different way of handling back-volume of journals; “Big deal” is the cost model of the electronic products in which the publisher or aggregator bundle title and decide the price of the bndle. The users do not have a choice to select ttles in a bundle. 4/26/2019 Bhattacharyya-10-24-2008

JSTOR in Collaboration ALUKA – African collection Ireland Collection 4/26/2019 Bhattacharyya-10-24-2008

ALUKA Aluka - an international, collaborative initiative building an online digital library of scholarly resources from and about Africa; Aluka – a platform for content owner to contribute and make their contents accessible without having a separate technology platform Aluka seeks to attract high-quality scholarly content about Africa from institutions and individuals across the globe. By contributing their collections to the Aluka platform, content owners will have a means of offering access to their collections to an international audience—without having to develop and support their own technology platforms. Aluka’s web-based platform provides powerful tools for research, teaching, collaboration, and knowledge exchange 4/26/2019 Bhattacharyya-10-24-2008

Ireland Collection Collaborator - Queens University Belfast; Rare, ceased periodicals from the early 19th century; Queen's Bunting collection in music; Journals publishing contemporary scholarship; 4/26/2019 Bhattacharyya-10-24-2008

JSTOR in Collaboration Collaborations between these initiatives have enriched all the parties; Both Ireland and Aluka collections have got a platform for visibility; JSTOR collection has been strengthened; 4/26/2019 Bhattacharyya-10-24-2008

Indian Journals & E-publishing: A Few Questions What are the major and common problems related to publication of Indian journals? How visible are Indian journals? What is happening to the back volumes of those journals? How e-publishing can address those issues? A number of journals are published in India – with wide variety of content, language, and level – is there any comprehensive survey so that we can understand the problems that are haunting the content creators? Very few journals are included by aggregators; Are we sure that contents of all issues of earlier volumes of Indian journals are available at least in one place? 4/26/2019 Bhattacharyya-10-24-2008

Three Proposals Problem estimation; Develop a collaborative model; Develop differential cost model; 4/26/2019 Bhattacharyya-10-24-2008

Problem Estimation Countrywide survey of the health of publications – specifically those which are published by small organizations; Assess the problem of the archival issues of those journals 4/26/2019 Bhattacharyya-10-24-2008

Collaborative Organization Model; In the line of Aluka, a collaborative and common platform may be built up which can be used by all including those who cannot afford to have their own infrastructure. Explore the possibility of collaborating with JSTOR/similar organizations - this will help increasing readership of Indian journals. 4/26/2019 Bhattacharyya-10-24-2008

Develop Differential Cost Model Develop different cost model for Indian and international audience; Examine how the cost model can be further enhanced to benefit Indian users; Explore the possibility of using JSTOR to increase the readership of Indian journals; 4/26/2019 Bhattacharyya-10-24-2008

At the End Technologies like Web 2.0 is opening newer scopes for creating contents; Parallel to those technological developments, a more holistic approach is required, in order to ensure that contents created in the past and which will be created in the future, get a permanent platform to remain visible as well as accessible for the posterity; 4/26/2019 Bhattacharyya-10-24-2008