Browsing by Subject "Scholarly publishing"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Economics of the Scholarly Journal
    (American Library Association, 1989-11) Lewis, David W.
    This paper considers the economic nature of the scholarly journal from a theoretical perspective and concludes that it is what economists call a natural monopoly. Natural monopolies exist when the average price of the good falls over the range of demand, and unless a subsidy is provided the good will not be produced in the quantity that provides the most social benefit. the natural monopoly model of the scholarly journal sheds light on the issue of dual pricing and explains how scholarly publishing can be a highly profitable enterprise. Because subsidies should be easier to implement in electronic systems, this alternative may provide a more effective means of scholarly communication.
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    The First Book Project: A Disruptive Process for Creating Scholarly Monographs in the Social Sciences and Humanities
    (2006-01-26T14:09:20Z) Lewis, David W.
    This proposal applies the work of Clayton Christensen and his colleagues to the problem of creating scholarly monographs in the social sciences and humanities. An alternative model for creating first scholarly books is proposed.
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    Library and Information Science Research Literature is Chiefly Descriptive and Relies Heavily on Survey and Content Analysis Methods
    (Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 2015-12-17) Coates, Heather L.
    Objective – To compare the research articles produced by library and information science (LIS) practitioners, LIS academics, and collaborations between practitioners and academics. Design – Content analysis. Setting – English-language LIS literature from 2008 through 2012. Subjects – Research articles published in 13 library and information science journals. Methods – Using a purposive sample of 769 articles from selected journals, the authors used content analysis to characterize the mix of authorship models, author status (practitioner, academic, or student), topic, research approach and methods, and data analysis techniques used by LIS practitioners and academics. Main Results – The authors screened 1,778 articles, 769 (43%) of which were determined to be research articles. Of these, 438 (57%) were written solely by practitioners, 110 (14%) collaboratively by practitioners and academics, 205 (27%) solely by academics, and 16 (2%) by others. The majority of the articles were descriptive (74%) and gathered quantitative data (69%). The range of topics was more varied; the most popular topics were libraries and librarianship (19%), library users/information seeking (13%), medical information/research (13%), and reference services (12%). Pearson’s chi-squared tests detected significant differences in research and statistical approaches by authorship groups. Conclusion – Further examination of practitioner research is a worthwhile effort as is establishing new funding to support practitioner and academic collaborations. The use of purposive sampling limits the generalizability of the results, particularly to international and non-English LIS literature. Future studies could explore motivators for practitioner-academic collaborations as well as the skills necessary for successful collaboration. Additional support for practitioner research could include mentorship for early career librarians to facilitate more rapid maturation of collaborative research skills and increase the methodological quality of published research.
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    Proposal for an Alternative Academic Press
    (2011-01-13) Lewis, David W.
    The following proposal is for an Alternative Academic Press. The intent of this initiative would be to increase the production of scholarly monographs, particularly in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, in order to advance scholarship in these areas. An additional goal of the initiative will be to develop a model for academic publishing that will be less expensive than traditional academic publishing and produce a product that will be open access in its electronic form and available at cost for a print-on-demand copy. The proposal will be based on the principles of disruptive innovation developed by Clayton Christensen.
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