Publishing international library and information science journals: The changing landscape

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the publication trends of Scimago Journal & Country Rank (SJR)-indexed library and information science (LIS) journals by examining publication share growth by country and region. For this study, we used LIS journals indexed in the SJR in 2000, 2010, and 2020. The results showed that the most frequent publishers of SJR-indexed LIS journals are large commercial publishers. The top three publishers since 2000 were Taylor & Francis, Emerald, and Springer Nature, despite their publication share among SJR-indexed journals declining since this period. The top three countries in journal publishing were the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. As the large commercial publishers have established themselves in these countries, the publication shares of these countries have also declined slightly because of the slowing growth rate of their publishers. Similarly, publication shares in both Northern America and Western Europe have declined slightly since 2000. However, the large commercial publishers, based mainly in the United Kingdom and the United States, are likely to take the lead in publishing SJR-indexed international LIS journals over the next decade. The results suggest that publishers from non-Western countries will need to publish significantly more international LIS journals indexed in the major databases to achieve a significant publication share. In conclusion, more innovative ways to support journals published in non-Western countries are needed in order to meet the essential selection criteria of the Scopus and Web of Science journal indexes.