Don, Thanks for your feedback on this. I have a more specific question - when will Ecosphere show up on Web of Science? I understand that it takes a few years to accumulate an impact factor, but that's not what I'm concerned about. Rather, I would like users of WOS to be able to find papers on Ecosphere (and I am sure ESA would like this too). Do you know when WOS will start to include Ecosphere?
Thanks, Mike ------- Michael J. Vanni Professor Department of Zoology and Graduate Program in Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology (EEEB) Miami University phone:513.529.3192 fax: 513.529.6900 email: vannimj at muohio.edu http://www.muohio.edu/vannilab -- On 3/16/12 7:46 PM, "Don Strong" <[email protected]> wrote: >This is a great question, "Why does ESA still publish paper journals?" >The >answer to this question changes by the year if not more quickly. The basic >answer is that we still publish on paper because libraries want to buy our >paper journals. However, the fraction of libraries desiring paper is >falling, albeit slowly. The number of individual subscribers desiring >paper >is much smaller and it is falling much faster than on the library side. >We >encourage all subscribers to choose digital only. This is good business >for >ESA because the paper costs lots to print, handle, and mail (our business >is >publishing good science; it isn't wed to paper). Digital only is good >business for libraries because digital journals cost less; no binding, >shelving, and re-shelving. The reader gets better value with the digital >only products from us. At the same time, we have seen on ecolog that some >readers prefer paper journals. We are serving the diversity of our >readers! > >A more interesting question that has been on the internet recently is, >"Why >are not all ESA journals open access?" We have a really good answer now >that >we have Ecosphere. The first part of our answer is, We can do open >access, >just look at Ecosphere." The second part of the answer is that all of our >journals will become open access when authors and readers demand open >access. At this point we have many, many more submissions to our >traditional >journals: Ecology, Ecological Applications, Ecological Monographs, and >Frontiers in Ecology than to Ecosphere. If authors simply submitted their >work to Ecosphere rather than the traditional journals, we would choke on >our success for a few months, then we would begin shifting our traditional >journals to the open access mode in a model similar to Ecosphere (with >residual printing for the shrinking "I want paper" group). We have talked >a >lot about such a scary, exciting proposition. > >I will finish by saying that while our traditional journals are by >subscription (except Ecology reports, which are open access), they are at >the kind and gentle end of subscriptions. Librarians love ESA journals >because they are affordable, have not escalated their prices, and are not >bundled with lots of less desirable journals. I will reserve my rant >about >the commercial publishers for beers at the Portland meeting. I buy the >first >round.
