AEJMC policy on providing access to online studies
I wrote in a previous post that I was contacting organizations regarding their policy about providing access to journal articles for the public. Unless you pay, the public does not generally have access to recent journal articles for a one year period. This pay-to-read policy will also affect my ability to write about research found in a greater number of journals. AEJMC holds the copyright on Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, and Journalism Monographs. AEJMC’s Executive Director Jennifer McGill shared with me the reasons behind their policy:
“We do not allow online full-text of articles during the first year to protect our subscriptions, which cover the bulk of the cost of publishing the journals. Without that subscription income, we could not produce the journals. We do allow classroom use of any article — at no fee — to promote the use of the research. The journals (on a one-year delay) are online through commercial groups who do charge. So it would be hard to link to the articles on their sites.”
McGill says that AEJMC uses this approach to share research with professional journalists.
“For several years now, AEJMC has provided a “Research You Can Use“ section. This provides a press release and a copy of the full article for articles that the editor of the journal (Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly) believes would be useful to working journalists.”
However, the site only provides access to a PDF abstract and press release of the study. You have to contact the researcher to obtain a copy of the study. It would be more helpful for journalists and researchers if the organization posted copies of the articles on this page. The most recent set of abstracts are from Summer of 2007.
However, AEJMC has recently begun providing full access to recent Newspaper Research Journal articles, a division journal of AEJMC.
I think it would be beneficial if AEJMC leaders got together to discuss alternative/innovative ways of sharing research with professionals and non-journal reading academics in order to promote the informational value of journals beyond an audience of publishing academics.
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Serena,
Your last paragraph said it best, and that’s exactly what AEJMC is accomplishing with the recently approved strategic directions: exploring new ways to share research, reach professionals and promote the value of the association to the public at large.
The Research You Can Use project was designed for just those purposes. As part of the project, we ask selected journals to submit articles that are both timely and would appeal to the general population. However, some issues cover niche topics that might not be the most appropriate in this case. Those decisions are left at the discretion of the editor, and may help answer why some gaps occur.
PDF copies of the referenced articles are supposed to be included with each press release. Sometimes those are sent to us and other times they’re not. We do our best to follow up, but sometimes those things just slip through the cracks.
I will look into this specifically for you on Monday and reply back when we have the articles posted. We do have some new releases from the RYCU project coming out soon, so look for those as well.
Thank you for your time and careful attention.
Sincerely,
Mich Sineath
AEJMC Public Relations
AEJMCpr@aol.com
803-798-8581