DOI: 10.5061/dryad.pvmcvdnt3
title: Open access practices of selected library science journals

description: The data in this set was gathered to analyze the open access practices of
 library journals. The data was culled from the Directory of Open Access
 Journals (DOAJ), the Proquest database Library and Information Science
 Abstracts (LISA), and a sample of peer reviewed scholarly journals in the
 field of Library Science. Starting with a batch of 377 journals, the
 researchers focused their dataset to include journals that met the
 following criteria: 1) peer-reviewed 2) written in English or abstracted
 in English, 3) actively published at the time of analysis, and 4) scoped
 to librarianship. The dataset presents an overview of the landscape of
 open access scholarly publishing in the LIS field during a very specific
 time period, spring and summer of 2023.
description: <strong>Data Collection</strong>
 The researchers gathered 377 scholarly journals whose content
 covered the work of librarians, archivists, and affiliated information
 professionals. This data encompassed 222 journals from the Proquest
 database Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA), widely regarded
 as an authoritative database in the field of librarianship. From the
 Directory of Open Access Journals, we included 144 LIS journals. We also
 included 11 other journals not indexed in DOAJ or LISA, based on the
 researchers’ knowledge of existing OA library journals. The data is
 separated into several different sets representing the different indices
 and journals we searched. The first set includes
 journals from the database LISA. The following fields are in this
 dataset: Journal: title of the
 journal Publisher: title of the
 publishing company Publisher Type: the
 kind of publisher, whether  association, traditional, university library,
 or independent Country of publication:
 country where the journal is published 
 Region: geographical place of publication 
 Open Data Policy: lists whether an open data exists and what the
 policy is Open Data Notes: descriptions of
 the open data policies Open ranking: details whether
 the journal is diamond, gold, and/or green 
 Open peer review: specifies if the journal does open peer
 review Author retains copyright:
 explains copyright policy APCs:
 Details whether there is an article processing charge
 In DOAJ: details whether the journal is
 also published in the Directory of Open Access Journals
 The second set includes similar as the
 previous set, but it also includes two additional columns: 
 Type of CC: lists the Creative Commons license
 applied to the journal articles In LISA:
 details whether the journal is also published in the Library and
 Information Science Abstracts database 
 A third dataset includes eleven scholarly, peer reviewed journals
 focused on Library and Information Science that were not in DOAJ or LISA.
 This dataset is also labeled with the same fields as the first
 dataset.  The fourth dataset is the complete list of
 377 journals that we evaluated for inclusion in this dataset.
 <strong>Data Processing</strong>
 To explore the current state of OA scholarly publishing in
 librarianship, we developed the following criteria: Journals must be
 published at the time of analysis, peer reviewed, and scoped to
 librarianship and must have articles or abstracts in English so that we
 could determine the journal’s scope. After applying inclusion/exclusion
 criteria, 145 of 377 journals remained; however, the total number of
 journals analyzed is 133 because the DOAJ and LISA shared 12 journals. The
 researchers explored the open data policies, open access publication
 options, country of origin, publisher, and peer review process of each of
 the remaining 133 journals. The researchers also looked for article
 processing costs, type of Creative Commons licensing (open licenses that
 allow users to redistribute and sometimes remix intellectual property),
 and whether the journals were included in either the DOAJ and/or LISA
 index. References: Budapest Open
 Access Initiative. (2002) http://www.soros.org/openaccess/
description: # Open access practices of selected library science journals The data in
 this set was culled from the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the
 Proquest database Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA), and a
 sample of peer reviewed scholarly journals in the field of Library
 Science. The data include journals that are open access, which was first
 defined by the Budapest Open Access Initiative:  By ‘open access’ to
 [scholarly] literature, we mean its free availability on the public
 internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print,
 search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for
 indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful
 purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those
 inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. Starting with a
 batch of 377 journals, we focused our dataset to include journals that met
 the following criteria: 1) peer-reviewed 2) written in English or
 abstracted in English, 3) actively published at the time of analysis, and
 4) scoped to librarianship. The dataset presents an overview of the
 landscape of open access scholarly publishing in the LIS field during a
 very specific time period, spring and summer of 2023. After scoping 377
 journals, we examined 134 that met our criteria and determined that the
 state of open access is clearly an evolving trend, where journals are
 moving toward ‘open,’ but with varying levels of transparency.
 Ascertaining the openness of individual peer reviewed journals was
 challenging because the info had to be scraped from individual websites.
 Overall, the field of librarianship is beginning to embrace openness in
 their journals. ## Description of the data and file structure ### Data
 Collection In the spring of 2023, the researchers gathered 377 scholarly
 journals whose content covers the work of librarians, archivists, and
 affiliated information professionals. This data encompassed 221 journals
 from LISA, widely regarded as an authoritative database in the field of
 librarianship. From the DOAJ, we included 144 LIS journals. We also
 included 12 other journals not indexed in DOAJ or LISA, based on the
 researchers’ knowledge of existing OA library journals.  The data is
 separated into several different sets representing the different indices
 and journals we searched. The first set of journals, entitled LISA
 journals, was obtained from the database LISA. The following fields are in
 this dataset: * Journal: title of the journal * Publisher: title of the
 publishing company * Publisher Type: distinguishes between different types
 of publishers: association; independent; university, library, or archive, 
 - Country of publication: country where the journal is published - Region:
 identifies the continent where the journals are published - Open Data
 Policy: lists whether an open data exists and what the policy is - Open
 Data Notes: Details about the open data policy - Open ranking: details
 whether the journal is diamond, gold, and/or green - Open peer review:
 specifies if the journal does open peer review - Author retains copyright:
 explains copyright policy - APCs: Details whether there is an article
 processing charge - In DOAJ: details whether the journal is also published
 in the Directory of Open Access Journals The second set of journals,
 entitled DOAJ journals, includes similar information, but it includes the
 titles of journals listed in the DOAJ. * Journal: states the title of the
 journal * Publisher: title of the publishing company * Publisher Type:
 distinguishes between different types of publishers: association;
 independent; university, library, or archive,  * Country: country where
 the journal is published * Region: identifies the continent where the
 journals are published * Open Data Policy: lists whether an open data
 policy exists * Open Data Notes: Details about the open data policy * OA
 since: lists when the journal became open access * Open ranking: details
 whether the journal is diamond, gold, and/or green * Open peer review:
 specifies if the journal does open peer review * Author Holds Copyright
 without Restriction: lists  * APC: Details whether there is an article
 processing charge * Type of CC: lists the Creative Commons license applied
 to the journal articles * In LISA: details whether the journal is also
 published in the Library and Information Science Abstracts database A
 third dataset of journals, titled Additional Journals, includes twelve
 scholarly, peer reviewed journals focused on Library and Information
 Science but not included in the DOAJ or LISA. * Journal: the title of the
 journal * Publisher: title of the publishing company * Publisher Type:
 distinguishes between different types of publishers: association;
 independent; university, library, or archive,  * Country: country where
 the journal is published * Open Data Policy: lists whether an open data
 exists * Open Data Notes: Details about the open data policy * Open
 ranking: details whether the journal is diamond, gold, and/or green * Open
 peer review: specifies if the journal does open peer review * Author
 Retains Copyright: lists whether the author of an article in the journals
 retain their copyright upon publication of the article  * APC: Details
 whether there is an article processing charge * CC Licensing: lists which
 Creative Commons license the journal uses * Current: lists whether the
 journal is currently in publication at the time of research and writing *
 In LISA: details whether the journal is also published in the Library and
 Information Science Abstracts database * In DOAJ: this column lists
 whether the journal is indexed in the Directory of Open Access Journals A
 fourth dataset, titled All the Evaluated Journals, includes the titles of
 all the journals we evaluated and scoped for their open access publication
 potential. * Journals: the title of the journal * Found in DOAJ and LISA:
 shows which journals appeared in both the Directory of Open Access
 Journals (DOAJ) and the Proquest database Library and Information Science
 Abstracts (LISA) ## **Data Processing** The researchers downloaded an
 Excel file from the publisher Proquest that listed the 221 journals
 included in LISA. From the DOAJ, the researchers searched and scoped to
 build an initial list. Thus, 144 journals were identified after limiting
 search results to English-language only journals and those whose scope
 fell under the following DOAJ search terms: librar* (to cover library,
 libraries, librarian, librarians, librarianship). Journals also needed to
 have been categorized within the DOAJ subject heading “Bibliography.
 Library science. Information resources. And for the journals that we
 analyzed that were in either index, those journals were included based on
 the researchers’ knowledge of current scholarly, peer-reviewed journals
 that would count toward tenure at their own university, an R1 university.
 Once the journals were identified, the researchers divided up the journals
 amongst each other and scoped them for the following criteria: 1)
 peer-reviewed 2) written in English or abstracted in English, 3) actively
 published at the time of analysis, and 4) scoped to librarianship.  The
 end result was 134 journals that the researchers then explored on their
 individual websites to identify the following items: open data policies,
 open access publication options, country of origin, publisher, and peer
 review process. The researchers also looked for article processing costs,
 type of Creative Commons licensing (open licenses that allow users to
 redistribute and sometimes remix intellectual property), and whether the
 journals were included in either the DOAJ and/or LISA index. References:
 Budapest Open Access Initiative. (2002)
 [http://www.soros.org/openaccess/](http://www.soros.org/openaccess/) ##
 Sharing/Access information Data was derived from the following sources: *
 [https://doaj.org/](https://doaj.org/) *
 [https://about.proquest.com/en/products-services/lisa-set-c/](https://about.proquest.com/en/products-services/lisa-set-c/) * [www.google.com](http://www.google.com)