e-Journals for Indonesia

Using open source software OJS (Open Journal System), I started Discovery Indonesia Journal Hosting with a bioscience journal as the first member (Berkala Penelitian Hayati – Bioscience Research Journal), followed by others. Soon, I have been promoting this platform to prominent Indonesian universities: University of Indonesia, Bogor Agricultural University, Satya Wacana Christian University, Parahyangan Catholic University, Atma Jaya Catholic University, and many others.

Some journals has swiftly decided to join, such as HAYATI – Journal of Biosciences, which is THE most prominent journal in bioscience in Indonesia. The journal is well-versed with OJS since it has joined IJO (Indonesia Journal Online) initiative (you may visit its site at http://www.ijonline.net). The journal decided to join my platform since the IJO platform only serves as e-Journal Hosting, while it needs the Online Submission function from OJS.

IJO can be more or less a direct competitor since it uses exactly the same open source program (Open Journal System), but since the Online Submission function of OJS is not activated here, then it is not a competitor. While I charge a small fee to a member journal, IJO even PAY the journal to be a member! What an interesting business model, but I wonder if it would even grow, especially after no more funding from the Indonesian government.

Besides Discovery Indonesia Journal Hosting (http://journal.discoveryindonesia.com) which would host journal management function for Indonesian print journals, I have also started Edu2000 e-Journal (http://journal.edu2000.org). This platform is strictly for e-only journal and/or a start up journal or even a journal-wannabe. There are two members here already: Chinese Diaspora e-Files (http://chinesediaspora.edu2000.org) and Vernacular e-Archive (http://vernacular.edu2000.org).

Do visit these novel initiatives and let me have your two-cents worth!

Yet another scientific journal seminar

I have been giving seminar on electronic journal publishing since 2005 while I was still with Elsevier. The activity has become regular now, even though I am not with Elsevier anymore. The forthcoming seminar will again at Airlangga University, Surabaya (Indonesia) on June 4th and 5th, 2008.

The topic for the first day will be ‘Citation Index and Impact Factor’ while for the second day will be ‘The Marketing Mix in Scientific Journal Publishing.’ Actually the materials are improvements from similar topics from November 2007 seminar, with more materials included on the PowerPoint presentation rather than online. I also differentiate ‘marketing’ into ‘input marketing’ and ‘output marketing.’

Electronic Journal Hosting

I have been toying around with electronic journal hosting initiative for some time. Once we planned to set jurnaldigital.com with some commercial model, then the idea of Indonesian online dissertation and theses (similar with PQDT – ProQuest Dissertation and Theses).

None of them are easy. Both are challenges.

Indonesian scientific journals are published mostly by universities as part of their three pilars of function, and hence, very much for the sake of Higher Education General Directorate’s accreditation. This would include minimum printrun of 300 copies (yes! print!) with 300 subscribers (must have proof of receipt shown!).

Electronic journals? It’s just web site companion of the print version, at its best. Airlangga University has tried to go beyond that, but it still has a long way to go.

As for Online Dissertation and Theses, the main stumbling block is ownership of the papers. Libraries are not willing to let their dissertation and theses collection out of their premises. At best they give online access to the full texts using a special reader that would prohibit the files to be downloaded. This is the case with Petra Christian University, Surabaya. The others? You’re lucky to be able to browse the titles, but not the abstracts (let alone full texts).

At the end of this exhaustive search for some business model, we have decided to:

1. Postpone the Online Dissertation and Theses initiative and work with libraries in promoting OAI (Open Archive Initiative) instead. This would be in form of seminar, workshop or training for librarians or university’s IT personnels. Petra Christian University (Surabaya) and Atma Jaya University (Jakarta) has shown some interest and we may have the first seminar in January 2008.

2. Establish online journal hosting as a free service, as an extension to existing businesses. My colleague from Graha Ilmu Publisher will have http://jurnaldigital.com (which I planned to be in but not at the end) and myself will have Discovery Indonesia Journal Hosting (http://journal.discoveryindonesia.com). Both beta versions are available for browsing). I’m lucky to have my first hosted journal from Surabaya (Berkala Penelitian Hayati – Journal of Biological Researches) and soon another one from Bogor (Jurnal Teknologi & Industri Pangan – Food Science & Technology Journal).

Loosely related to this is my initiative for education materials hosting and sharing, which idea can be read from http://www.edu2000.org (Sorry folks! This site is Bahasa Indonesia only) and the archive of the late Neotek magazine (http://www.neotek.co.id). I might soon prepare a searchable repository for this archive. It might be part of edu2000.org initiative.

Business Aspects of Journal Publishing

I have just finished giving speech (together with my colleague from HK) at the Higher Education seminar which was held at Twin Plaza Hotel, Slipi, Jakarta.

I presented a short paper entitled: Business Aspects of Journal Publishing, in whch I discussed the main  function of scientific journals, the development of journals and how journals publishing becoming big businesses, especially in the internet era.

The audience are representatives from ten best journals in Indonesia according to Higher Education criterion. They are representatives from the ten best journals including five which are eligible to get government grant for journal development.

My colleague presented Managing International Peer Reviewer, Strategy for Capturing Interests of International Contributors, Language Mastery for Scientific Journals, and Self-Editing and Revisions. The response are very positive for both his presentation and mine (not bad for only less than a week notice).

It was a great opportunity to meet a wide range of players in Indonesian scientific community.

http://kosasihiskandarsjah.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/business-aspects.ppt

International Journal Management Training

I have just got confirmation today that I and my colleague from HK will be the speakers at the forthcoming seminar that will be conducted by the Indonesian Ministry of Education, Higher Education. The seminar program will be held at Twin Plaza Hotel (Slipi, West Jakarta) on September 7-9, 2007 (Friday to Sunday).

The subjects will be about managing international peer-reviewer and business aspects of international journal publishing with some additional sessions on scientific English proficiencies. Most of the sessions will be conducted by my colleague, who has more than one decade experience in international journal editorial issues, while myself will only conduct one session on the business aspects.

We both worked at Elsevier prior to our current assignments. We have conducted several seminar/training sessions together, especially at the Airlangga University. This time our appointment at the general directorate level also come from our good friends from Airlangga University.

I will have the materials from the seminar available from this personal weblog site on due time. Hopefully it will be beneficial to anybody interested in scientific publishing issues.

business-aspects.ppt

JurnalDigital.com

Another digital initiative on digital journal in Indonesia.

After Airlangga University with its own electronic journal platform (http://journal.unair.ac.id/), now Graha Ilmu a privately-owned publisher has started another platform (http://www.jurnaldigital.com/main/). Graha Ilmu was first would like to join the Airlangga University bandwagon but eventually decided to have its own way.

While Airlangga University may have more contents (it has plan to include researches not only from the university but also other Indonesian universities’ journals), this private initiative may have more information about journal publishing itself. The owner of the platform has contacted me and it seems that my article will be one of the first be included at this new electronic platform.

Welcome JurnalDigital.com in this brave new world of digital publishing!