IDENTIFYING CORE MARINE SCIENCE JOURNALS: FACTORS OF EVALUATION

Abstract

Journal articles are the most important sources for scientific information. More than 10 years after the “Berlin Declaration”, more and more journals are published with open access. Due to this, the journals market is subject to a lot of change. The main aim is to gather information to establish whether our subscriptions still meet the needs of our scientists. Key factors used to identify the core journals for marine sciences are displayed, at least for the scientists of our institution, which is an interdisciplinary research facility. It specializes in the study of coastal oceans and marginal seas and is divided into four sections which focus on different research activities. Because of this, it is important to find a combined set of core journals which reflect the needs of all scientists involved. Recent budget cuts have made it even more necessary to cut down on journal costs. Certain questions had to be answered during the evaluation process. Topics included in those questions were the definition of what core journals are, where our scientists publish their research, which journals they cite, available open access and institutional access to journals specialized in marine sciences and the cost of journals.