Will open-access journals substitute big-deal subscriptions in engineering college libraries in India?

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to analyse the impact of open-access (OA) journals in engineering and technology institutions, if libraries are not subscribed to the journals through the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) mandatory packages. In India, many engineering colleges do not subscribe to journals through business subscription models or consortia and invariably a majority of them depend on OA journals to fulfil their users’ needs. Design/methodology/approach – The paper identifies the impact factors of mandatory journals made in big-deal subscriptions with the impact factors of OA journals available to access in Directory of OA Journals pertaining to engineering and technology. Findings – The study reveals that journals subscribed through big-deal subscriptions have better impact in the scholarly communications than the OA journals. Research limitations/implications – The results of this study cannot be generalized to all disciplines. Impact factors of journals can also be calculated by use of SCImago Journal Rank indicator, which uses the Scopus database. Publish or Perish can also be used to analyse Google Scholar rankings to identify the individual journal’s impact. Originality/value – The result of the study is useful for selection of e-journals in big-deal subscriptions and it highlights the implications and impact of OA journals in engineering and technology.

Open Access and the Big Deal Sharing Space in the Netherlands

“…For example, a recent article title directly asked, "Will Open-Access Journals Substitute Big-Deal Subscriptions in Engineering College Libraries in India?" (Aragudige & Vasanthakumar, 2014). The problems expressed by libraries regarding these large subscription packages will likely be familiar to readers.…”

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“…In the present situation, commercial publishers' journals make big-deal subscriptions necessary because they have a better reputation and higher prestige within the scholarly community than OA journals in engineering and technology (Aragudige and Vasanthakumar, 2014).…”