Editorial Scope
portal: Libraries and the Academy is an international journal which publishes qualitative or quantitative research about the role of libraries and librarianship within the academy.
Both basic and applied research papers, including case studies, are welcome, as are essays that explore the more theoretical or philosophical underpinnings of the library profession. The journal welcomes the submission of inquiries and proposals for topics that authors have under development and will provide guidance on the suitability for publication in portal.
General Policies:
portal publishes only original, previously unpublished content.
Authors should consult the journal editor if part, or all, of their submitted manuscript has been published previously. portal acknowledges that, during research and manuscript preparation, authors may benefit from discussing or presenting some of their findings at conferences or meetings, or from posting such content on email lists or academic social networks. Authors must notify the editor and provide details of such dissemination when submitting their article.
Authors must also notify the editor if their manuscript uses data from another published study, making the case for their study’s added value, originality, or both.
Authors should not submit the same manuscript for review to more than one journal at a time.
The editors and Editorial Board of portal have endorsed the principles and practices in the documents “A Statement of Ethics for Editors of Library and Information Science Journals” and “A Guide to Best Practices for Editors of Library and Information Science Journals,” both issued in 2009 and revised in 2010, and posted at www.lis-editors.org/ethics/index.html and www.lis-editors.org/best-practices/. We encourage authors, reviewers, and other editors and publishers to follow these standards for integrity and responsibility.
Through its editorial practices, portal supports the development and evolution of inclusive language, including the use of the singular they. The journal encourages authors to refer to themselves by their chosen pronouns and to honor that practice for individuals referenced in their articles.
A Note about Learning Analytics Research
portal feels that while library learning analytics research holds potential, it is also rife with ethical issues. Learning analytics is defined as “the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data about learners and their contexts, for purposes of understanding and optimizing learning and the environments in which it occurs” (see SOLAR). Academic libraries are engaging in learning analytics research, and our editorial outlines our views. Authors should address relevant ethical issues if their work is a learning analytics study. Reviewers of learning analytics research will be instructed to look specifically for ethics discussions within a piece’s literature review and research design sections and also can address learning analytics ethics in additional sections. We encourage prospective authors with questions about learning analytics research to contact the editor, Ellysa Stern Cahoy, ellysa@psu.edu.
Use of AI tools in author submissions
portal adheres to the guidance shared in the Johns Hopkins University Press Generative AI policy for authors. portal values and embeds trust and transparency in our editorial processes. We trust our authors to disclose the use of generative AI when used substantively as part of the research methodology and/or as a significant tool in the creation of manuscript content. We ask authors using generative AI tools to fully describe such use within the text of their manuscript.
Submissions exploring AI technologies within the context of academic libraries and higher education are always welcome.
We encourage prospective authors with questions about utilizing AI-generated content or tools in submissions to contact the editor, Ellysa Stern Cahoy, ellysa@psu.edu.
Article Types
All new article submissions should be submitted to portal electronically via ScholarOne Manuscripts: mc.manuscriptcentral.com/pla_journal
Research Articles
Both basic and applied research papers, including case studies, are welcome, as are essays that explore the more theoretical or philosophical underpinnings of the library profession.
Topics may include but are not limited to library administration and leadership; library approaches to diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and belonging; methods or innovations in research and teaching; archival practice; data management; open access, or organizational theory.
Feature Articles
Feature articles are edited but not peer reviewed. Send proposals or questions about features and related communications to the appropriate feature editor, with copies to Ellysa Stern Cahoy, ellysa@psu.edu, and to Anne C. Behler, portalmanagingeditor@gmail.com,
The following features appear regularly in portal:
The Manuscript Review Process
Submissions to portal go through a double-anonymized review process: the reviewers of the paper do not know who the authors are, nor do the authors know the identity of the reviewers. The managing editor redacts any information or embedded metadata from the manuscript that could identify the authors and sends it to two referees, members of the portal Editorial Board.
The portal reviewers rate the submission using a standard assessment rubric. It asks them to evaluate the manuscript in several areas, including appropriateness to the journal’s readership, originality, literature review, research methodology, and clarity of writing. Some referees also provide authors with a marked-up manuscript with additional comments and suggestions. The assessment framework asks referees to indicate when a submission has merit but needs additional work before publication.
The portal referee assessment rubric is available here.
If the referees determine that an author should revise and resubmit a manuscript, the editor will forward that recommendation to the author. Once the author has incorporated the suggestions of the referees, the revised manuscript will go back for review, usually to the original referees but occasionally to other members of the Editorial Board. Over time, we have seen this process produce outstanding results.
When the manuscript is accepted, with or without revisions, the editor will notify the author as soon as possible, suggesting a deadline for resubmission of the next iteration. Upon final acceptance, the editor will provide an estimated publication date and, if possible, indicate the journal volume and issue number. If, at the end of the peer-review process, the editor decides not to publish, she will inform the author with an explanation for that decision.
Manuscript Preparation
All new article submissions should be submitted to portal electronically via ScholarOne Manuscripts: mc.manuscriptcentral.com/pla_journal
Editorial Style/Conventions
How To Submit Your Manuscript
Tables, Figures, and Illustrations
Appendices
Acknowledgments
Manuscript Posting
The Johns Hopkins University Press allows authors to post manuscripts on their own personal or departmental institutional database or on-line site, in their institutional repositories, and, if required by law, to an open access archive. A copyright agreement between the press and the author is executed at the time the manuscript is sent to the press for publication. The agreement gives the press the right to publish the article, but the author retains permission to use and republish the material if he or she includes a copyright notice.
Articles accepted for publication and copyedited for the upcoming issue of portal are posted on a preprint server hosted by the Journals Division of the Johns Hopkins University Press.
Preprints are available here: preprint.press.jhu.edu/portal/
portal is available in the Project MUSE collection, muse.jhu.edu/journal/159, and as a paper publication.
We hope that you will enjoy the authoring and publication experience.
Ellysa Stern Cahoy, ellysa@psu.edu, Editor
The Hopkins Press Journals Ethics and Malpractice Statement can be found at the ethics-and-malpractice page.
portal: Libraries and the Academy focuses on qualitative or quantitative research about the role of libraries and librarianship within higher education. Both basic and applied research papers, including case studies, are welcome, as are essays that explore the more theoretical or philosophical underpinnings of librarianship. The desired length is about 25 to 35 pages double-spaced, but we will consider longer manuscripts.
Submissions to portal go through a double-blind review process: the reviewers of the paper do not know who the authors are, nor do the authors know the identity of the reviewers. The managing editor redacts any information or embedded metadata from the manuscript that could identify the authors and sends it to two referees, members of the portal Editorial Board. This review may take from six to nine weeks.
The portal reviewers rate the submission using a standard assessment rubric. It asks the referees to evaluate the manuscript in several areas, including appropriateness to the journal’s readership, originality, literature review, research methodology, and clarity of writing. Theassessment framework asks referees to indicate when a submission has merit but needs additional work before publication. If they determine that an author should revise and resubmit a manuscript, the editor will forward that recommendation to the author. Once the author has incorporated the suggestions of the referees, the revised manuscript will go back for review, usually to the original referees but occasionally to two other members of the Editorial Board. This process may take another six to nine weeks.
Authors should reveal when submitting a manuscript to portal if there has been any prior presentation or publication of the same material or something very similar. Prior presentation does not automatically disqualify a submission, but the editor needs to make a fully informed decision about the novelty of the work. Authors should not submit the same manuscript for review to more than one journal at a time.
Ellysa Stern Cahoy, Penn State University
ellysa@psu.edu
Marianne Ryan, Loyola University Chicago
mryan21@luc.edu
Michelle Guittar, Northwestern University
michelle.guittar@northwestern.edu
Maribeth Slebodnik, University of Arizona
slebodnik@email.arizona.edu
Mark N. Lenker, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
mark.lenker@unlv.ed
Carmen Cole, Penn State University
ccc143@psu.edu
Sara Dreyfuss
portalmanagingeditor@gmail.com
Rebecca S. Albitz, Marist College, rebecca.albitz@marist.ed
Veronica Arellano Douglas, University of Houston, vadouglas@uh.edu
Andrew Asher, Indiana University Bloomington, asherand@indiana.edu
Consuella Askew, Rutgers University, consuella.askew@rutgers.edu
Andrea Baer, Rowan University, baera@rowan.edu
Jennifer Brannock, University of Southern Mississippi, Jennifer.Brannock@usm.edu
Vicki Coleman, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, vcoleman@ncat.edu
Maria Collins, North Carolina State University, mdcollin@ncsu.edu
Donna L. Ferullo, Purdue University, ferullo@purdue.edu
Bob Gerrity, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, robert.gerrity@monash.edu
Damon E. Jaggars, The Ohio State University, jaggars.1@osu.edu
Kate Johnson, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, kate.johnson@unco.edu
Kyle M. L. Jones, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, kmlj@iupui.edu
Hana Kim, University of Toronto, hn.kim@utoronto.ca
Lindsay King, Stanford University, kingl@stanford.edu
Glenn Koelling, University of New Mexico, gkoelling@unm.edu
Karen Kohn, Temple University, karen.kohn@temple.edu
Anne Krakow, Saint Joseph’s University, akrakow@sju.edu
Willie Miller, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, wmmiller@iupui.edu
David Minor, University of California, San Diego, dminor@ucsd.edu
Carmelita Pickett, University of Virginia, cpickett@virginia.edu
Wendy Pothier, University of New Hampshire, Wendy.Pothier@unh.edu
Kyle B. Roberts, Congregational Library & Archives, kroberts@14beacon.org
Juan Carlos Rodriguez, California State University, Los Angeles, Carlos.Rodriguez@calstatela.edu
Jay Satterfield, Dartmouth College, Jay.Satterfield@Dartmouth.Edu
Herbert Snyder, Georgia College & State University, herbert.snyder@gcsu.edu
Thomas H. Teper, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, tteper@uiuc.edu
Sarah Watstein, Seattle University, watsteins@seattleu.edu
Jerome Yavarkovsky, jeromey@bc.edu
Send books for review to:
Maribeth Slebodnik, University of Arizona
slebodnik@email.arizona.edu
Please send book review copies to the contact above. Review copies received by the Johns Hopkins University Press office will be discarded.
Source: Ulrichsweb Global Serials Directory.
2005: Todd A. Carpenter, Heather Joseph, and Mary Waltham, “A Survey of Business Trends at BioOne Publishing Partners and its Implications for BioOne,” portal: Libraries and the Academy 4, 3 (2004): 465–84.
Click here to view the article.
2006: Brian D. Cameron, “Trends in the Use of ISI [Institute for Scientific Information] Bibliometric Data: Uses, Abuses, and Implications,” portal: Libraries and the Academy 5, 1 (2005): 105–25.
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2007: Corinna Baksik, “Fair Use or Exploitation? The Google Book Search Controversy,” portal: Libraries and the Academy 6, 4 (2006): 399–415.
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2008: Amos Lakos, “Evidence-Based Library Management: The Leadership Challenge,” portal: Libraries and the Academy 7, 4 (2007): 431–50.
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2009: Sharon K. Epps, “African-American Women Leaders in Academic Research Libraries,” portal: Libraries and the Academy 8, 3 (2008): 255–72.
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2010: Scott Bennett, “Libraries and Learning: A History of Paradigm Change,” portal: Libraries and the Academy 9, 2 (2009): 181–97.
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2011: Kevin Smith, “Copyright Renewal for Libraries: Seven Steps toward a User-Friendly Law,” portal: Libraries and the Academy 10, 1 (2010): 5–27.
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2012: Kathryn Lage, Barbara Losoff, and Jack Maness, “Receptivity to Library Involvement in Scientific Data Curation: A Case Study at the University of Colorado Boulder,” portal: Libraries and the Academy 11, 4 (2011): 915–37.
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2013: Tyler Walters, “The Future Role of Publishing Services in University Libraries,” portal: Libraries and the Academy 12, 4 (2012): 425–54.
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2014: Jennifer L. Bonnet, Sigrid Anderson Cordell, Jeffery Cordell, Gabriel J. Duque, Pamela J. MacKintosh, and Amanda Peters, “The Apprentice Researcher: Using Undergraduate Researchers’ Personal Essays to Shape Instruction and Services,” portal: Libraries and the Academy 13, 1 (2013): 37–59.
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2015: Ellysa Stern Cahoy and Smiljana Antonijević, “Personal Library Curation: An Ethnographic Study of Scholars’ Information Practices,” portal: Libraries and the Academy 14, 2 (2014): 287–306.
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2016: Richard Fyffe, “The Value of Information: Normativity, Epistemology, and LIS in Luciano Floridi,” portal: Libraries and the Academy 15, 2 (2015): 276–86.
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2017: Eamon Tewell, “Toward the Resistant Reading of Information: Google, Resistant Spectatorship, and Critical Information Literacy,” portal: Libraries and the Academy 16, 2 (2016): 289310.
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2018: Mark Lenker, “Developmentalism: Learning as the Basis for Evaluating Information,” portal: Libraries and the Academy 17, 4 (2017): 721–37.
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2019: Stefanie R. Bluemle, “Post-Facts: Information Literacy and Authority after the 2016 Election,” portal: Libraries and the Academy 18, 2 (2018): 265–82.
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2020: Kyle M. L. Jones,“‘Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should’: Practitioner Perceptions of Learning Analytics Ethics,” portal: Libraries and the Academy 19, 5 (2019): 407–28.
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2021: Sara Maurice Whitver, “Accessible Library Instruction in Practice,” portal: Libraries and the Academy 20, 2 (2020): 381–98.
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Carmen Cole, Information Sciences and Business Librarian at the Penn State University Libraries interviews our Volume 23 best article award winner is Kristin Antelman, University Librarian at the UC Santa Barbara Library.
SIFT is gaining popularity as a better way for students to evaluate information. In this video, portal authors, Allison Faix an Tristan Daniels, discuss their experience introducing SIFT in their asynchronous one-credit information literacy courses and what they learned.
Carmen Cole, portal's Co-Social Media Editor, interviews Kathleen Phillips, Stephen Woods, and Andrew Dudash about their article entitled “Incorporating Gray Literature in an Evidence-Based Nursing Curriculum: A How-To Guide”
Carmen Cole, portal's Co-Social Media Editor, interviews Justin Fuhr about his article entitled “Personal Librarian Philosophies: Discovering Meaning in What We Do.”
Hear from the co-authors of the article awarded "Best Article in 2022" - and what they learned from their mix of qualitative and quantitative research with faculty adopters of OER and what factors motivated them to do so.
Transcript can be found here.
We ask three questions of Sarah LeMire, the lead author of the article “Librarians as Teachers: Effecting Change in Composition Instruction” from Volume 23, Issue 2.
Transcript can be found here.
A conversation with Stefanie Bluemle, author of 'Post-facts: Information literacy and authority after the 2016 election,"' published in portal in 2018 and selected as the winning article for the portal 2019 Best Article Award.
Talking with Mark Lenker, author of 'Developmentalism: Learning as the Basis for Evaluating Information', published in portal in 2017 and selected as the winning article for the portal 2018 Best Article Award.
0.8 (2023)
1.0 (Five-Year Impact Factor)
0.00053 (Eigenfactor™ Score)
Rank in Category (by Journal Impact Factor):
97of 160 journals, in “Information Science & Library Science”
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