Even though my supervisor is still away sunning herself, she has left me a lot to be getting on with.
Today I was scouting out submissions for the perspectives (opinion articles) section of one of Wiley's medical journals. This involved familiarising myself with the format and then searching through letters to the editor to see if there was anything that might make a good full-length article. I was completely lost content-wise but I feel I got the hang of the task and could see why this kind of research is important for finding new content, but perhaps more importantly new contributors.
From here I moved on the collating the results of an online survey about open access nursing journals. I chose to sort out the answers to one of the most open ended questions on the survey - which open access journals have you accessed? Answers ranged from the somewhat over-helpful lists of many
Today I was scouting out submissions for the perspectives (opinion articles) section of one of Wiley's medical journals. This involved familiarising myself with the format and then searching through letters to the editor to see if there was anything that might make a good full-length article. I was completely lost content-wise but I feel I got the hang of the task and could see why this kind of research is important for finding new content, but perhaps more importantly new contributors.
From here I moved on the collating the results of an online survey about open access nursing journals. I chose to sort out the answers to one of the most open ended questions on the survey - which open access journals have you accessed? Answers ranged from the somewhat over-helpful lists of many
journals to just vague one word answers. But my favourite answers were:
1) IDONTKNOW
2) email
3) Croatia, Slovakia and Bosnia and Herzegovina
Someone didn't read the question, or didn't realise that a real person would be reading the answers.Again not the most exciting task but useful to see the research that goes into creating and maintaining journals.
The highlight of the day was again the talk put on for us work experience folk. This week we were given an insight into life as a commissioning editor. Turns out in journals this mainly involves sitting around waiting for the phone to ring. But when you're not doing that you work to try and bring in new society journals as Wiley is the primary publisher of association and society publications. This involves research, initial contact, financial planning, proposals (internal and external) and finally contract negotiation.
Once they have these journals they then have to try and keep hold of them and stop them being pinched by other publishers. This is done by keeping a good personal relationship with the society and reacting to their needs. Basically commissioning editors seem to be the go-betweens at Wiley, acting as messenger between the publisher and the society.
But as with everything in the world of journals - open access is coming and its going to rock the boat. It has shifted focus back onto commissioning new journals in a world where the recession and budget cuts has pushed new subscriptions down. It has also meant that societies are not as tied to their existing publishers anymore. Before swapping publishers could affect the journal's subscriptions as changing publishers might have affected the bundle deals that libraries were getting and make them reconsider their subscription. Now they are free to chop and change (contracts permitting) as all the costs are paid at the author end.
And my day ended on a high as I won a free chocolate bar from the one I bought in the vending machine on a whim.
1) IDONTKNOW
2) email
3) Croatia, Slovakia and Bosnia and Herzegovina
Someone didn't read the question, or didn't realise that a real person would be reading the answers.Again not the most exciting task but useful to see the research that goes into creating and maintaining journals.
The highlight of the day was again the talk put on for us work experience folk. This week we were given an insight into life as a commissioning editor. Turns out in journals this mainly involves sitting around waiting for the phone to ring. But when you're not doing that you work to try and bring in new society journals as Wiley is the primary publisher of association and society publications. This involves research, initial contact, financial planning, proposals (internal and external) and finally contract negotiation.
Once they have these journals they then have to try and keep hold of them and stop them being pinched by other publishers. This is done by keeping a good personal relationship with the society and reacting to their needs. Basically commissioning editors seem to be the go-betweens at Wiley, acting as messenger between the publisher and the society.
But as with everything in the world of journals - open access is coming and its going to rock the boat. It has shifted focus back onto commissioning new journals in a world where the recession and budget cuts has pushed new subscriptions down. It has also meant that societies are not as tied to their existing publishers anymore. Before swapping publishers could affect the journal's subscriptions as changing publishers might have affected the bundle deals that libraries were getting and make them reconsider their subscription. Now they are free to chop and change (contracts permitting) as all the costs are paid at the author end.
And my day ended on a high as I won a free chocolate bar from the one I bought in the vending machine on a whim.
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