Embargo (academic publishing)
Encyclopedia
In academic publishing
, an embargo is a period during which access is not allowed to certain types of users. The purpose of this is to protect the revenue of the publisher.
Various types exist:
available in a given online
database
and the most recently published print issue
of a journal. It is specified by publishers in their license agreements with databases (like JSTOR
), and generally ranges from several months to several years. It is generally considered frustrating to academic researchers who rely on current publications to further their work. In essence, the publisher's embargo stifles academic creativity and intellectual progress.
Academic publishing
Academic publishing describes the subfield of publishing which distributes academic research and scholarship. Most academic work is published in journal article, book or thesis form. The part of academic written output that is not formally published but merely printed up or posted is often called...
, an embargo is a period during which access is not allowed to certain types of users. The purpose of this is to protect the revenue of the publisher.
Various types exist:
- A moving wall is a fixed period of months or years. (See below.)
- A fixed date is a particular time point that does not change.
- A current year (or other period) is setting a time point on Jan. 1 of the current year, so that all material earlier than that is available. Though fixed during the year, it will change each year.
Purpose
There are various purposes:- In delayed open access, the embargo separates the most recent period, for which a subscription is needed, from an older period, where a subscription is not needed and anyone may access the article. This is usually between 2 months and 5 years.
- In full-text databases, such as those of EBSCO PublishingEBSCO PublishingEBSCO Publishing, headquartered in Ipswich, Massachusetts, is an aggregator of premium full-text content. EBSCO Publishing's core business is providing online databases via EBSCOhost to libraries worldwide. EBSCOhost is used by libraries, schools, academic institutions, medical institutions, and...
or ProquestProQuestProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based electronic publisher and microfilm publisher.It provides archives of sources such as newspapers, periodicals, dissertations, and aggregated databases of many types. Its content is estimated at 125 billion digital pages...
, it separates the most recent period, where only a title or abstract is available, from an older one, which is openly accessible. It also separates the relatively recent period for which sometimes only a low-quality copy, such as ASCIIASCIIThe American Standard Code for Information Interchange is a character-encoding scheme based on the ordering of the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that use text...
is available, from an older one, which may have higher quality versions, such as PDF.
Moving wall
In academic publishing, a moving wall is the time period between the last issue of an academic journalAcademic journal
An academic journal is a peer-reviewed periodical in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as forums for the introduction and presentation for scrutiny of new research, and the critique of existing research...
available in a given online
ONLINE
ONLINE is a magazine for information systems first published in 1977. The publisher Online, Inc. was founded the year before. In May 2002, Information Today, Inc. acquired the assets of Online Inc....
database
Bibliographic database
A bibliographic database is a database of bibliographic records, an organized digital collection of references to published literature, including journal and newspaper articles, conference proceedings, reports, government and legal publications, patents, books, etc...
and the most recently published print issue
Issue
Issue may refer to:* Issue , a monthly Korean comics anthology magazine* Issues, a Jewish magazine published by the American Council for Judaism* Issue , a unit of work to accomplish an improvement in a data system...
of a journal. It is specified by publishers in their license agreements with databases (like JSTOR
JSTOR
JSTOR is an online system for archiving academic journals, founded in 1995. It provides its member institutions full-text searches of digitized back issues of several hundred well-known journals, dating back to 1665 in the case of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society...
), and generally ranges from several months to several years. It is generally considered frustrating to academic researchers who rely on current publications to further their work. In essence, the publisher's embargo stifles academic creativity and intellectual progress.