The Concerns of Authors: Textual Analysis of Online Journal Reviews

This paper presents the results of an investigation of Chinese authors' attitudes towards, and concerns about, academic journals by analyzing their comments posted on a journal review Web site. The views of 338 authors about 13 Chinese academic journals in the library and information science field were collected. Using word frequency, word co-occurrence, and factor analysis, their comments were processed and the important factors extracted. The authors addressed a series of aspects regarding the journal itself, the review and publication process, and the service provided by editors. The paper provides a unique opportunity to understand Chinese authors' views using a direct source.