As the publisher of CJC, I better jump in on this particular part of your story, Jonathan. I mainly agree, and I'm glad you're raising this discussion and highlighting the nuances in a debate that tends toward the "either or". The Canadian Journal of Communication is *mainly* open access, with a "hold back" of 12 months. For now, however, we do still have subscriptions, both institutional and individual. The hold back, however, means we don't (yet) meet the definition of open access. We're working on it: - In cases of urgent social matters (e.g., a recent issue in which a very recent article of ours had some bearing on a current public policy issue) we will open up an article or even a whole issue; - When we have sponsorship (twice in the past three years, I believe), we open things up even sooner. - We make the journal available online to libraries outside of the OECD at a reduced or free rate. That said, it is the stated objective of the journal - and my personal objective - to move toward full open access. The funding agency for journals in Canada is generally supportive of this direction, and new software (like the excellent Open Journal Systems 2.1 - see http://pkp.sfu.ca/) makes this more possible by enhancing the labouring part of producing journals. And I think "online" and "prestige" are not incompatible and it will soon be a forgotten issue. The quality of the journal will be in the quality of the editor, the quality of the reviews, the quality of the editorial board, and ultimately, the quality of the articles. The other element about going online, which isn't often talked about and isn't really connected to open access or not, is the experience for the authors. A journal is nothing without its authors and increasingly authors are demanding/expecting a fully online submission/review process. This is what we got with OJS - it is the "gateway drug" to open access for traditional journals, in my opinion, since it demonstrates vividly how easy it would be to go the next step. And, I can confirm Jonathan's point that readership shot up. Not subscriptions - although they are holding steady and increasing slightly - but readers. People visit the site, download the articles, cite us in their papers. And, they submit articles - from around the world - so we know we're having a greater impact online. ...r On 26-Apr-07, at 7:21 AM, Jonathan Sterne wrote:
4. That said, open access is generally a good thing if your goal is to disseminate what you write. When the Canadian Journal of Communication went open access (it survives through dues and -- I think -- also through grants) their readership shot up. http://www.cjc-online.ca/ The new International Journal of Communication (http://ijoc.org) also has funding behind it, and they've managed to attract some big names in the field, which should probably offset the online prestige issue, at least over time.