The Ecology of Academic Journals

The fate of academic journals is highly contested. Pessimistic pundits predict their imminent demise while others envisage a new era of participatory knowledge creation and web only publications, with yet others advocating increased involvement of scholars and libraries in developing a "fair" system of scholarly publishing. The book is written against the backdrop of the complete transformation of scholarly communication. It considers the multifaceted nature of academic journals in a systematic investigation of the journal's eco-system - a metaphor indicating the importance of relationships between all involved stakeholders, their environments and their functioning as a unit. The eco-system of academic journals consists of four contexts: the value chain, the invisible college, the market and the organisation of academia. These contexts also represent various environments - economic, social, and organisational. Central argument claims that all inhabitants of the eco-system are scrambling to adapt to new conditions of changing environment. The aim of this book is to provide the reader with a model for analysing the situation of individual journals in their respective niche markets as well as assisting in continuous observation and adaptation to the changing environment.