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Science and Development Network
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Definitions
List of terms for Science publishing
Scientific information is crucial for a variety of stakeholders, but communicating science poses a challenge for all.
A
Advance Online Publication (AOP)
A policy adopted by several science journals to publish papers online in advance of print publication. The papers are placed on the journal's website as soon as they are edited and reviewed, and are identical to the printed version in every way except pagination.
Article processing charges
See 'Author fees'.
Author fees
Also called 'article processing charges' and 'publication charges'. Fees that journals charge scientists to publish a paper. They are intended to shift editorial and publishing costs away from the reader. Several publishers, such as PLoS [link: http://www.plos.org/] and BioMed Central [link: http://www.biomedcentral.com/] , have a policy of waiving author fees for those who cannot afford them.
B
Bandwidth
A measure of the speed at which information can flow through an Internet connection, usually measured in bits-per-second. A full page of English text is about 16,000 bits, which a 56K modem can easily move in less than a second. Bandwidth is often compared to a water wipe: a larger pipe (high-bandwidth connection) can carry more water (information) than a small pipe.
C
Copyright
In publishing, the legal right granted to the author or publisher to distribute, sell and reproduce a piece of work. Copyright owners hold these rights exclusively and may attach conditions (such as a price) at their discretion. Traditionally, biomedical publishers request that authors relinquish their copyright.
D
Differential pricing
A policy of selling products, such as journal subscriptions, at different prices to different users according to how much they can afford. Several publishers offer differential pricing according to a country's gross national product per capita through schemes such as the Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative (HINARI) [link: http://www.who.int/hinari/en/] and Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture (AGORA). [link: http://www.aginternetwork.org/en/]
Digital divide
The disparity between the rich and the poor in their access to computers, digital information, and the benefits these make possible.
[Source: Guide to the open access movement [link: http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/guide.htm] , Peter Suber]
E
Eprint
An electronic preprint or postprint. The term was coined in 1992, and originally referred only to electronic preprints. Paul Ginsparg [founder of arXiv [link: http://arxiv.org/] , an open-access repository of physics papers] later generalised it to mean author self-archived electronic preprints or postprints.
[Source: Guide to the open access movement, Peter Suber]
Eprint archiving
See 'Self-archiving'.
F
Figure charges
In print publishing, the fees sometimes incurred by the authors of an academic paper when it is accepted for publication. Typically, publishers will charge authors for each colour figure included in the paper. Figure charges, like page charges (see below), are intended to cover publishing costs.
I
Institutional subscription
As well as individuals, entire research institutes may purchase subscriptions to publications. This allows researchers within the same institute to share journal subscriptions (online and in print), generally through the institute's library. Institutional subscription rates are typically higher than individual rates but lower than the cumulative cost of taking out individual subscriptions for all researchers.
M
Metadata
Data about data: a science paper contains data, but can itself also be described by a different set of data such as its author and title. This second set is metadata. In electronic publishing, it can be used to tag papers with descriptive terms (author, title, but also keywords and date). This facilitates cataloguing and searching.
O
Open access
Barrier-free online access, in this case to scholarly online literature. Open access eliminates two kinds of access barriers: (1) price barriers and (2) permission barriers such as copyright and licensing terms. Open-access archives and open-access journals offer barrier-free access to their online content.
[Source: Guide to the open access movement [link: http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/guide.htm], Peter Suber]
P
Page charges
In print publishing, a charge sometimes incurred by the authors for each page of their research paper. Some journals operate a voluntary page-charge policy while others don't use this system at all. Page charges, like figure charges (see above), are intended to cover publishing costs.
Pay-per-view
A means of accessing a paper in an online academic journal whereby users buy the right to view a single paper instead of purchasing an entire journal issue or subscription. Some journals, such as Science, sell the right to access papers for 24 hours. Others sell the right to download them for indefinite use.
Peer review
A method of quality control used by most academic journals whereby a paper is assessed by other researchers in the same field before it is accepted for publication. Most open-access initiatives support the use of peer review. Preprints, however, are sometimes placed on the web before they are peer reviewed.
Postprint
An edition of a text produced after it has first appeared in print. This usually means it has been peer reviewed and revised.
[Source: Guide to the open access movement [link: http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/guide.htm], Peter Suber]
Preprint
A version of a paper which appears, generally as an online posting, before the final peer-reviewed, revised paper is published. Preprints may be produced anywhere along the publishing process, from unreviewed and unrevised to both reviewed and revised but not yet printed.
Producer-pays model
A financial model for academic publishing whereby the producer of scientific information pays for it to be published (see 'Author fees' above). This contrasts with the user-pays model (see below) in which the user of scientific information pays for access by purchasing a journal article, issue or subscription.
Publication charges
See 'Author fees'.
S
Self-archiving
Also called 'eprint archiving'. The practice of scholars putting their work online on institutional or individual archives. Authors first put an unrefereed preprint into the archive. Then they submit the article to a peer-reviewed journal. If it is accepted and the author can negotiate the right to self-archive, then he or she puts the refereed and possibly revised postprint into the archive. If it is accepted but the publisher does not permit self-archiving, the author puts only the 'corrigenda' (the differences between the online preprint and the published version of the article) into the archive.
[Source: Guide to the open access movement [link: http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/guide.htm], Peter Suber]
Site licence
In electronic publishing, a means of purchasing online access to journal issues and/or archives. Site licences are generally available for purchase by institutions, libraries, library consortia, and/or governments.
U
User-pays model
A financial model for academic publishing whereby someone wishing to use scientific information (generally a researcher) pays for access by purchasing a journal article, issue or subscription. This contrasts with the producer-pays model (see above) in which the producers of scientific information finance publishing costs by paying author fees.
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