Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information's scholarly journal publishing: A case study

Key points The relationship between the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) and Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice (JISTaP) enables both to benefit from the other. KISTI is able to test new systems with its own journal, JISTaP. JISTaP benefits from both financial and technical support of its parent, although this can restrict its ability to make changes and use alternative technologies.


INTRODUCTION
Korea has a long tradition of respect for scholarship. Scholarly publishing is one way Korea seeks to disseminate and accumulate knowledge, create new knowledge, and enhance national research and development (R&D).
Commercial companies lead the scholarly publishing environment in the UK and USA, but 'in Korea, most scholarly journals are published by discipline-based scholarly societies and research institutes affiliated to universities' (Joung & Rowley, 2017, p. 259). National government research institutes, such as Korea

Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) and
Korea Education and Research Information Service (KERIS), and commercial full-text database service aggregators, such as Nurimedia and Korean Studies Information, lead the Internet distribution and archiving of journal articles (Hong, 2008, p. 432 Yi's study (1998) and Oh, Yeo, and Park's study (2015) discussed ETRI Journal's inclusion in the SCI. Yi (1998)  as Editor-in-Chief of ETRI Journal and described ETRI's process of getting the journal included in SCI. Oh et al. (2015) analysed how ETRI succeeded from an external perspective. KISTI is not only a government-funded research institute but also an information service provider. KISTI is 'the government's main information service institution for science and technology' (Joung & Rowley, 2017, p. 264). It also plays a role in building and managing R&D infrastructure for science and technology.
Moreover, KISTI has developed and delivered information infrastructures for Korean journal publishing and access.  networks. JISTaP editors also use their social and professional networks to solicit many manuscripts by international researchers.
From 2013 to 2017, JISTaP published 209 primary authors and co-authors from 25 countries (see Table 2). KISTI encourages its researchers to submit to JISTaP by acknowledging submissions as a research achievement. Twentyfour KISTI researchers have published, alone or together, nine papers in volumes 1-5 of JISTaP. Three of those nine papers were written in collaboration with researchers from other institutions.
JISTaP's editorial review process does not give any special priority or consideration to papers submitted by KISTI researchers, and they are never reviewed by other KISTI researchers.
JISTaP is a fast-track, peer-reviewed journal. Most (67.5%) JISTaP manuscript reviewers have been non-Korean scholars (see Table 3). Over time, their countries of origin have become more diverse.

KISTI'S FINANCIAL BACKING OF JISTAP
Many Korean scholarly societies that publish are in poor financial health. Their revenues include yearly membership fees, manuscript review charges, and article processing charges (APC).
Authors whose papers are accepted by these societies are     KISTI's financial backing also allows all accepted papers to receive English copy-editing by a university professor and native speaker of English. This service, offered free of charge to authors, enhances the quality of published articles and encourages submissions from authors whose first language is not English. This free service may be one reason that non-native English authors submit to JISTaP multiple times. Because KISTI is a sponsoring member of CrossRef, JISTaP has free use of CrossRef's CrossCheck service, which includes Turnitin's iThenticate software, to check manuscripts for plagiarism.

KISTI'S TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE AND JISTAP
KISTI has up-to-date technological facilities, such as five supercomputers. KISTI uses its technology assets to develop and distribute free systems, databases, and platforms for journal publishing, archiving, and dissemination.

Electronic submission system: ACOMS
KISTI has developed the Article Contribution Management System (ACOMS), an electronic submission system, to support Korean journal publishers. ACOMS 1.0 through ACOMS 3.0 were for journals written in Korean. As many Korean scholarly societies in science and technology have internationalized their journals, they have paid large fees to major Korean and foreign publishing companies to use their expensive, English-version, electronic submission systems. In response, KISTI developed ACOMS 4.0, an English version, and allows Korean scholarly societies to use it for free. KISTI also teaches how to use and manage ACOMS 4.0.
Before JISTaP launched in 2012, nearly 50 journals of 14 Korean scholarly societies already used ACOMS 4.0. One reason KISTI published JISTaP was to test and improve ACOMS 4.0, and it can be said that the two have developed together. JISTaP has always used ACOMS 4.0, despite the availability of other free submission systems, and JISTaP staff members, co-editors-inchief, editors, authors, contributors, and reviewers have reported many errors and problems in the system. As a result, the ACOMS system has been much improved, and the number of journals using it increased to 90 in 2017. KISTI intends to allow not only Korean journals to use ACOMS but also other countries' journals. The development of KPubS is ongoing. Currently, KPubS focuses on creating XML versions of articles, which it then publishes as HTML, ePub, PDF, and PubReader. It does not link with ACOMS, National Digital Science Library (NDSL), or Online Coordinator for E-Association Network (OCEAN) (NDSL and OCEAN will be described below). Integration with ACOMS would make KPubS a true full-cycle publishing platform. At present, JISTaP uses KPubS to create full-text XML of its articles that are published on the site in the different formats. It will take time for KISTI to fully develop KPubS so that it can play its role more effectively. As KPubS progresses, JISTaP staff members will likely consider using more of its functions.

Korean Journal Publishing Service
Currently

JISTaP homepage
JISTaP has its own homepage that provides information about the journal, including its aims, scopes, policies, guidelines, and more. Researchers can submit their manuscripts using ACOMS 4.0 at 'E-submission' (see KISTI, 2018b). All issues and articles are available on this site as PDF files. The JISTaP homepage also links to the article on KPubS.
The JISTaP homepage could be improved by a better user interface and additional content. Although the need to improve the JISTaP homepage has been reported to KISTI, the institute has not budgeted for this effort.
KISTI researchers help to internationalize JISTaP. Many KISTI researchers use their social and professional networks to help recruit international researchers as authors, editors, and reviewers. The free English copy-editing service probably encourages a greater number of non-native English speakers to contribute to JIS-TaP. Currently, the majority of JISTaP authors come from certain Asian countries. JISTaP should get more authors from more countries so that it can better contribute to global society by disseminating diverse, international knowledge on information science. So far, KISTI has not exhibited much operational control over JISTaP, whose editorial board has great freedom over the journal.
However, the journal's reliance on a single sponsor does make it vulnerable. KISTI publishes JISTaP for its own purposes, and the institute could, 1 day, decide to stop publishing it, just as it stopped publishing the JIM in 2012. JISTaP has demonstrated its value to KISTI by being included in the widely recognized Scopus database.
JISTaP is currently preparing to apply for inclusion in Social Science Citation Index (SSCI)/SCI to further demonstrate its value. Currently, JISTaP and KISTI mutually support each other. KISTI's support for JISTaP is especially helpful in a publishing environment with an increasing number of international journals, which also heightens the competition for good content. JISTaP helps KISTI by being a test bed for the institute's publishing infrastructures, which KISTI makes available to Korean publishers for free whenever possible. In this way, JISTaP is an important part of KISTI's government-funded mission, which is to enhance the Korean publishing field.