Focus and Scope
Editorial development within JoDI is organised into themes. Each theme has an editor. For the convenience of users, papers are published in issues but are also linked into themes to assist retrieval. Published papers can be categorised for inclusion in more than one theme.
The journal invites submissions for the following themes:
- digital libraries
- hypermedia systems
- hypertext criticism
- information discovery
- information management
- social issues of digital information use in real and virtual spaces
- usability of digital information
Section Policies
Editorials
 Open Submissions |
 Indexed |
Peer Reviewed |
Articles
| Open Submissions |
Indexed |
Peer Reviewed |
Peer Review Process
Papers submitted to JoDI must be original. As a peer reviewed journal JoDI is unable to consider papers that have been accepted by or published in another peer reviewed source, or any other publication where copyright in the work has been assigned to another party (this does not include any copy on your personal or your institutional Web sites). For the same reason, JoDI is also unable to consider papers while they may be being considered for publication elsewhere.
Open Access Policy
A non-exclusive licence will be requested from authors of accepted papers before publication in JoDI. Authors retain copyright, providing more flexibility and fewer restrictions than many publishers impose. If you want to know how flexible we are on licencing and what benefits this offers you, read on below.
The main purposes of the licence are to agree:
- publication of the paper in JoDI
- editing and presentation in the JoDI format
- permanent retention of the paper in an accessible JoDI archive and/or in a public archive as future legislation might require
The only general restriction is that while you, as the author, can reuse your content and data in any way you wish, you are not allowed to reproduce an exact replica of the JoDI version, which includes any features specific to the look and appearance of the journal, anywhere else. In addition, while versions of the paper may appear or be published elsewhere, these cannot be exclusive publications that may be detrimental to the preservation of the original version in JoDI.
The benefits for authors: why a flexible licence policy?
The principle that underpins and differentiates JoDI's copyright requirements from other journals is non-exclusivity.
You have important new work to report. You want the work to be validated by independent peer review for an authoritative source. Then at the moment of acceptance, typically, your rights are swept away in a copyright transfer process initiated by and weighted towards the publisher. Now we have multiple media in which you could publish your work, watch out for terms in publisher copyright agreements that assign exclusive rights or 'all rights' away from the author. Not with JoDI, though, because our agreement will allow you to choose how best to use your work in other forms.
For example, should you be able to deposit a version of your paper in an e-print archive? In some fields such archives are not just a point of free access but are becoming the version of record, particularly for linking the literature. But archives do not peer review papers and are not ultimately the authoritative source. This is the role of journals, yet the two can work cooperatively for the benefit of authors and users.
Should you be able post a version of your paper to a personal server or to a departmental server? It may be departmental or institutional policy for you to do so, or it may be personal preference. JoDI allows this.
Should a version of your paper be freely available when there is a for-pay version as well? Journals provide authoritative versions of papers, and good journals add features which users will pay for, if the price is not excessive. So a free version of a paper is a good discipline for a journal and is not a disincentive to serious and busy scholars who will benefit from the collected version. JoDI aims to be this type of journal. As it develops, JoDI might go further, providing a link to the free version, or even posting the free version from our site alongside the journal's authorised version.
Should you be allowed to re-use your materials in the classroom, for workshops or other presentations? This is a natural progression for much academic work.
Should you be allowed to publish a version of your work in another format, perhaps in another publication? There may be a specific reason for wanting to do this, and this is likely to become more common as electronic journals develop features that are distinct from print, say. The only restriction here is that, while we do not seek exclusive rights or exclusive licence to your work, you must agree not to grant subsequently exclusive rights, or 'all rights', to another publisher.
The answers to all the above questions could be yes, if you want them to be. JoDI says 'yes' to them all, but you may be surprised how many other publishers and journals would not.
Archiving Policy
JoDI is committed to formal archiving as an assurance to authors and users, now and in the future. To this end the journal will be adhering to recognised best practices for data preparation and maintenance, and has approached established archiving bodies to offer full content for archiving purposes. We believe that long-term archiving must be handled independently. This type of archiving of electronic content, however, is not yet well understood. In the interim, we will make the journal available for pilot archival schemes managed by national or international bodies, and are prepared to contribute constructively to these schemes to ensure that properly-founded archiving for real electronic journals, not just journals that have a print counterpart or print history, is introduced as soon as is practicable.
Editors' note. Journal of Digital Information was redesigned during 1998 and relaunched in October of that year. Demonstrating our commitment to the archiving process, the original site can still be viewed. While it is not ideal that a journal maintains its own archives, as a service to authors and users who may wish to trace original versions of a work, we intend preserve the original JoDI as an open access site (registration may be required, but it will remain free).