Masaaki Tonosaki

Proposal of the movement that publishes the results of scientific research of home country to learned journals of home country
Masaaki Tonosaki

Nippon Medical School Central Library

Address: 1-1-5 Sendagi Bunkyoku, Tokyo, 113-8602 JAPAN

Tel. : [phone] (dial-in) Fax: [phone] E-mail : [e-mail]

Abstract: The library budget is stringent because of the soaring price of a foreign journal and the spread of electronic journals every year. A researcher is in the tendency to contribute the research result performed by investing the research cost of a country or a university to the foreign learned (scholarly) journal which evaluation is high as much as possible. When a researcher continues to contribute his paper to some publishing companies’ journals, those journals serve as a large sum extremely, and it is becoming impossible to purchase them at a library. Therefore, in order to normalize the state of such an unusual scientific communication, librarians and researchers should emphatically promote the"3-Nots-Movement" such as; 1) libraries do not subscribe to those extremely high priced journals, 2) researchers do not contribute their papers to those journals, and 3) researchers do not become peer-reviewers and editors of those journals. And on this occasion, in order to support the realization of normal scientific communication, it should be recognized that there are three roles of librarians to researchers such as, 1) appealing the current state of the learned journal in each country, 2) explaining the problem of the sudden rise of journal prices, and 3) appealing the structural reform of the research publishing custom in each country. So, the author proposes movement that raises and promotes the learned journal of a home country all over the world.
Keywords : electronic journal, journal article, journal price, periodicals, scientific communication, scientific publication, scholarly journal, Societies, Scientific

1.Introduction

The library budget is stringent because of the soaring price of a foreign learned (scholarly) journal and the spread of electronic journals year by year^1-3). As the main research articles in Japan as well as most other countries are contributed to foreign journals, the library has captured it as natural service in which subscribing foreign journals and arranging them answer user's (researcher) needs. Moreover, about 80 percent of the result of the scientific research in Japan is published in foreign journals, and there is a fact that the original article published in the Japanese journal is only 20 percent under the environment that obtains an international evaluation.

This paper discusses the problem, the cause, and the counter measure of an unusual scientific communication such as soaring learned journals of science, technology, and medicine in library, especially non-Japanese scientific journals, relationship between libraries and scientific journals, the way of normalizing the state of such an unusual scientific communication, the necessity of spreading a scholarly journals of each country through the world, and the strategies that raise and promote domestic journals of each country.

2. Soaring learned journals of science, technology, and medicine in library

Table 1 shows median journal prices by publisher in all subject fields, 2000-2004. It is remarkable that height of the journal price of the Elsevier Science Co. is approximately two times higher prices than Blackwell’s one. In comparison with Oxford University Press (OUP)’s journals, it is about four times higher price.

Figure 1 shows median journal prices by publisher in the biomedical field, 2000-2004.

The highest price is Elsevier and the second is Nature. In these Table and Figure, although the price of Springer’s journal is below the half power of the journal of Elsevier, the cost-effectiveness index which is the ratio of the subscription price/the number of photocopies and downloaded portable document format (pdf) files is worse than Elsevier in Nippon Medical School Central Library.

.

As regard the impact factors of Elsevier and Springer journals, Figure 2 tells that it is not so higher than other publisher’s one. That is, it means that their journals belong to second-class journals and those journals need not necessarily even be bought for the library, although there are a lot of researchers layers for them ^4-5).

Table 1. Median journal prices-all subjects, 2000-2004.

WHITE, Sonya and CREASER, Claire Scholarly Journal Prices: Selected Trends and Comparisons Loughborough: LISU, October 2004 LISU Occasional Paper no. 34 ISBN 1 901786 83 8





Figure 1. Median journal prices-biomedical, 2000-2004.

WHITE, Sonya and CREASER, Claire Scholarly Journal Prices: Selected Trends and Comparisons Loughborough: LISU, October 2004. LISU Occasional Paper no. 34 ISBN 1 901786 83 8



Figure 2. Mean impact factor 1992-2002.

WHITE, Sonya and CREASER, Claire Scholarly Journal Prices: Selected Trends and Comparisons Loughborough: LISU, October 2004 LISU Occasional Paper no. 34 ISBN 1 901786 83 8
3. The roles of researchers in learned journals
Researchers have three roles of 1) consumer as reader, 2) producer who writes an article, and 3) referee to peer-review and edit articles. They are in the tendency to contribute their research result performed by investing the research cost of a country or a university to the foreign journal which evaluation is high as much as possible. When a researcher continues to contribute his paper to some publishing companies’ journals, those journals serve as a large sum extremely, and it is becoming impossible to purchase them at a library. It is a current state. Therefore, in order to normalize the state of such an unusual scientific communication, librarians and researchers should emphatically promote the"3-Nots-Movement ^1-3) " such as;
1) libraries do not subscribe to those extremely high priced journals,

2) researchers do not contribute their papers to those journals, and

3) researchers do not become peer-reviewers and editors of those journals.
Libraries and researchers should disregard extremely high priced journals. But, it has been assumed to be good for researchers to contribute their article to foreign journals that the impact factor as possible is as high as an evaluation of the achievement so far. At a result, as Table 2 shows, approximately 80 percent of the results of the scientific research in Japan is published in foreign journals, and there is a fact that the original article published in the Japanese journal is only 20 percent under the environment that obtains an international evaluation.

Table 2. Publication of Japanese scholarly papers in Japanese and foreign journals


The reasons why about 80 percent of original articles in Japan is published in foreign journals are

described by Murahashi ⁶⁾ .

1) More people can read them in foreign countries.

2) It is admitted as a high-quality article.

3) It is invited to an international conference, and the evaluation be obtained by receiving the lecturer

request.

4) The quality of the peer-review of the article is very high and constructive.

5) It is possible to become the editor of the journal in the scientific community, too.

4. Each country aiming at the scientific information founding a state and the intellectual property founding a state
It is not possible to live for the country without the resource without science and technology information on independence in the 21st century. If each country does the science and technology information founding a state and the intellectual property founding a state in signpost, a lot of results of the research should be published in the learned journal of each home country in order to raise and promote a learned journal of each own country.

The necessity of spreading learrned journals of each own country through the world is pointed out from the viewpoints ⁶⁾ such as,

1) Getting the place which publishes its research result.

2) Getting the stage which tells the world about the research situation of each country.

3) Securing the national interest which will be produced from their research result, intellectual

properties, and own culture.

4) Maintaining country's secures of the right of the contents of published papers, and

5) Publishing a learned journal is to examine a paper and it is a place which raises the

self-evaluation capability of learning and the necessity for the database of referees.

5. Librarians and learned journals
　 It has been assumed to be good to contribute the article to a foreign journal that the impact factor as possible is as high as an evaluation of the achievement so far. But, from now on, the custom of publishing the results studied in home country to foreign journals should be changed to publish them to home country’s journals. The infrastructure of scientific information flow should be established and maintained in each country.

In order to support the realization of normal scientific communication in each country, it should be recognized that there are three roles of librarians to researchers such as,

1) Appealing the current state of the learned journal in each country,

2) Explaining the problem of the soaring prise of the journals,

3) Appealing the structural reform of the research publishing custom.
It doesn't become a fundamental solution though librarians have done the effort to organize and to introduce the consortia of electronic journals as cheaply as possible.

6. Proposal of the movement that raises and promotes the learned journal of home

Country
The Non-Profit Organization (NPO) the Japan Medical Library Association (JMLA) has advocated the sudden rise measures of the journal price to the JMLA handbook in five year plan since 2004 ⁷⁾. Japanese Government also has been sponsoring the symposium that takes up the problem concerning the outflow of scientific information and strengthening a domestic learned journal since 2003 ^8-9).

At the same time with doing “3-Nots movement”, the following three slogans below are natural results as the strategies that raise and promote domestic journals of each country.

1) It is necessary that the articles published in the journal of each country should be evaluated among researchers each other and make the effort to raise their impact factor as higher as possible.
2) The research results using the research expense of countries and universities are obliged to write for their own country’s journal.
3) The structure of subscribing to journals by the tax again to use the results researched by using the tax of each country should be reorganized.
So, the author proposes the movement that raises and promotes the learned journal of the home country all over the world.

References
[1] Tonosaki, Masaaki. Soaring scientific information-foreign medical journals, electronic journals, and

bibliographic databases. Senmon Toshokan.2003;201:31-41.

[2] Tonosaki, Masaaki. Elsevier Science's problem and the role of librarians in scientific information and

communication. Online Kensaku 2003;24(1/2):1-2.

[3] Tonosaki., Masaaki. Unusual scientific communication. Rapid responses to US universities threaten to

cancel subscriptions to Elsevier journals. (Owen Dyer). BMJ.2004;328:543. (accessed 2005.07.14)

[4] Tonosaki, Masaaki. The necessity and methods for spreading the Japanese scholarly journals through

the world. Joho No Kagaku To Gijutsu. 2005;55(2):88-90.

[5] Tonosaki, Masaaki. Experiences of Digital Libraries in Japan: from foreign print, digital journals to

own country’s journals. International Workshop on Building the future of health libraries, July,

7-8th, 2005, UAB Casa Convalescència, Barcelona.

(accessed 2005.07.14)

[6] Murahashi, Shunichi. The current status and problems of Japan’s English-text academic journals.

Joho Kanri. 2004; 47(3):149-154.

[7]Mid/long-term target 2004-2009: Target 3. Correspondence to sudden rise of price of journals. NPO

Japan Medical Library Association Handbook 2004. (NPO) JMLA, 2004, 9p.

[8] SPARC/JAPAN Round-Table Conference in 2003 fiscal year. National Institute of Informatics,

International Scholarly Communication Initiative。2004-2-23.

[9] Special symposium executive committee, Symposium participant all the persons concerned. Proposal

towards international transmission power strengthening of a research result.

(accessed 2005.07.14)