Numerous factors contributed to the development of the journal Communications in Information Literacy (CIL), which began publication in 2007. Countering the monopolistic and exclusionary practices of commercial journal publishers was a leading concern. The co-founders were motivated by the possibilities of what was then an awakening open research environment to create a truly open access journal, filling a gap in the literature, and helping the library field to commence with reclaiming control of its scholarly record. There were many challenges to this undertaking; among them was the lack of institutional capacity to host or support a library publishing initiative. Accordingly, CIL was developed on the open source platform, Online Journal Systems (OJS), and it was maintained on a commercial web host. The journal grew and flourished under this model for ten years, but continued expansion of CIL and the increasing challenges of maintaining the journal on OJS prompted an exploration of alternative open access publishing options. This led to discussions, negotiations, and ultimately, a partnership with Portland State University. In 2017, CIL migrated from OJS and a commercial web host to Portland State’s Digital Commons (bepress) publishing platform, PDXScholar.
The presenters will provide brief overviews of CIL and PDXScholar, and they will detail the challenges and ultimate successes of this multi-institutional model for advancing open access journals and reclaiming control of the scholarly record. They will highlight the content migration process from OJS to PDXScholar, post-migration actions to correct metadata, the introduction of functioning DOIs, and coordinating with both free web and commercial indexers to assure proper access to the newly-moved journal. The presenters will also discuss the practicalities and the policy implications of this move, particularly in light of Elsevier’s acquisition of bepress. Finally, the presenters will advance their partnership as an exemplar of transformational publishing and as a viable, sustainable model for scholars in other fields to emulate.
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