Publishers’ responses to the e-book phenomenon: survey results from three ‘small language’ markets

Authors : T.D. Wilson, Elena Maceviciute

Introduction

This paper reports on a study of publishers’ attitudes towards e-books in the context of the global situation of e-book publishing. Comparative data are drawn from a replication of a survey carried out in Sweden, in Lithuania and in Croatia.

Method

A self-completed questionnaire survey was undertaken, offering respondents the choice of a printed questionnaire or a response through an online SurveyMonkey alternative.

Analysis

Quantitative analysis was performed using the descriptive statistics capability of SurveyMonkey.

Results

The three country survey reveals a number of similar responses from publishers on several key issues, i.e., self-publishing, the future role of bookshops, and relationships with public libraries. The results also reveal that publishers have a certain ambivalence on these issues

Conclusion

In ‘small language’ markets, the take-up of e-books represents a much smaller proportion of total sales than in the English language market. Responses to questions on publishers’ relationships with authors, booksellers and libraries show a high degree of unanimity of opinion.

URL : http://www.informationr.net/ir/21-4/paper725.html

Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Croatia

There is a vibrant Open Access environment in Croatia and several academic and research institutions initiate different activities concerning open access to the scientific information (Ruđer Bošković Institute, School of Medicine, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, Faculty of Organization and Informatics at University of Zagreb, University of Zadar, University of Osijek, National and University Library, etc.). It is very important to improve collaboration among different stakeholders, as well as to provide top-down guidance harmonized with EU practices.

Important blocks of the existing Open Access research infrastructure are presented in the paper: the Croatian Scientific Bibliography CROSBI, the Croatian portal for Open Access journals HRČAK, and the common infrastructure for digital academic repositories DABAR. Future development of Open Access infrastructure in Croatia is discussed.

URL : http://dipp2015.math.bas.bg/images/lecturers/abstracts/Jadranka_Stojanovski_DiPP2015_abstract.pdf

 

Supporting Open Access nationwide To support Croatian…

Supporting Open Access nationwide :

“To support Croatian scholarly publishing environment, and inspired by global open access movement, the portal of Croatian scientific journals HRČAK (http://hrcak.srce.hr) was introduced in 2006 offering an open access publishing platform for Croatian journals. Today, HRČAK gathers about 290 scholarly and professional Croatian journals. This paper is focused on the currency and visibility of the journals included in HRČAK, giving accurate statistical data about HRČAK repository, its growth and development. Collaboration with Croatian publishers, namely those are mainly academic and research institutions or professional societies, on the continuous work of raising the quality of Croatian scientific journals is presented in this paper. HRČAK journals are available for harvesting using OAI-PMH protocol and papers are distributed through many different repositories, archives, databases and search engines. The future plans include work on full-text documents, inclusion of the additional types of publications and formats, harvesting process improvements, additional functionalities and standardization.”

URL : http://bib.irb.hr/prikazi-rad?&lang=EN&rad=591272

Open Access to Scientific Information in Croatia Increasing…

Open Access to Scientific Information in Croatia : Increasing Research Impact of a Scientifically Peripheral Country :

“Open Access (OA) to scientific information has become, during the last decade, an important means of communicating in science. The most important fact, proved by numerous studies, is that OA can increase visibility and impact of research results. The first chapter of the book gives an overview of the beginnings of formal scientific communication as an introduction to the further discussion on OA, especially OA in developing and transition countries. In the second chapter, basic definitions of OA and basic OA initiatives are explained as well as the two ways of achieving OA. The third chapter analyses access barriers for scientifically peripheral countries and the ways of removing them. Chapters four and five are completely dedicated to the Open Access in Croatia. Using an example of Croatia, the possibilities of increasing research results of a scientifically peripheral country are explained. Results of the complete study of OA in Croatia are analysed and explained. The study consists of two parts – study of Croatian OA journals and study of Croatian OA repositories. In the first part, the data on editorial policy regarding electronic publishing are gathered by the method of web content analysis. In the sample are all the Croatian scientific journals that had, by the end of June 2010, at least one 2009 issue freely available on the internet. The second part of the study discusses the problem of OA repositories in Croatia and gives an example of such a repository. Recommendations for further development of OA in Croatia are given as a part of the conclusion.”

URL : http://darhiv.ffzg.hr/1397/