Library and information science journals: An editor survey

Abstract

AbstractThis article presents an editor survey of 48 international and German-language LIS journals. Data were collected by means of a standardized questionnaire from the (chief) editors of the journals in spring 2003. The results of the study show that the market of LIS journals, like others, has been very dynamic in the past 10 years. Practitioners play an important role as authors and even more as readers. A vast majority of the readers work in the public sector; most of them are librarians or scholars. Interestingly, science communication does not cross language community borders easily. In addition, scientific standards (kind of review procedure, extensive list of references, etc.) are higher for English language journals than for German ones.Keywords: Editor surveyJournal studyJournal profilesLibrary and information science (LIS) AcknowledgmentsThe authors would like to thank Peter Lea from Manchester Metropolitan University and Norbert Berger from the University of Graz for proofreading the text of this article.