臺灣人文學科學術期刊出版概況與分析

The General Status of the Publication of Taiwan's Academic Journals in the Field of Humanities

期刊是現今各學門發表研究成果的重要管道之一，學界也常藉期刊論文評估學者的研究表現，因此由學術期刊的出版狀況，可以大致了解學術發展的一些面向。本文針對臺灣人文學科相關的學術期刊，觀察分析其出版概況。樣本選擇行政院國科會「臺灣人文學引文索引」（THCI）資料庫收錄的345種期刊，調查其類別、出版地、出版機構、創刊年及更名停刊狀況、發行週期、有無ISBN及期刊電子化、以及被引用的狀況等，以分析其流變和各學門期刊數量與特色。研究結果顯示，臺灣人文學科學術期刊，以跨學門的綜合性期刊出版數量最多，很大比例為學報；人文各學門中以文學和歷史類期刊較多，顯示其研究較為蓬勃。超過八成期刊在都會區出版，尤其集中在臺北；出版機構以大專校院為主，公立多於私立。創刊高峰期在1990年代，發行週期以半年刊和年刊為多，大部分已申請了ISSN。期刊不乏更改刊名和停刊者，其因在於因應大專校院改制或系所更名，以及稿源不足等。國科會期刊評鑑機制亦影響大學綜合性學報停刊，以及各期刊縮短刊期。期刊建立網頁公布徵稿相關訊息，並提供電子摘要或全文，是大勢所趨，但尚未普及。由THCI中各期刊被收錄和被引用文獻的數量看來，僅少數期刊被收錄或引用大量文獻，而大部分期刊被收錄或引用文獻量很少。引用量與期刊品質具正相關，被引用過少的期刊，品質有待加強。

Academic journal is one of the most important channels for scholars to publicize their recent findings and accomplishments. Since ”publication” is often used to evaluate scholars' academic performances, an analysis of the journals where scholars choose to publish their work could somehow reflect recent developments in academia.This study observes and analyzes the 345 academic journals listed in the field of humanities of the Taiwan Humanities Citation Index (THCI) published by the National Science Council. The following factors of each journal are chosen as indicators: field, place of publication, publisher, year of the first issue, frequency of publication, ISBN and digitization of journals, and numbers of articles being cited. The result is as follows:1) Most of the journals in the target group are cross-discipline, while literature and history are the two fields with more journals, showing their prosperity in research.2) More than eighty percent of the journals are published in urban areas, mainly in greater Taipei.3) Most of the publishers are universities, with more public universities than private ones.4) The peak time of publication of the first issue appears in the 1990's. Most common publication frequencies are semiannual and annual. Most journals have applied for an ISSN.5) Change of journal titles and termination of publication are not rare cases; most of these changes are due to University reforms or renaming of departments, as well as lack of submissions.6) The journal evaluation system of National Science Council also caused the termination of some University cross-discipline journals, and shortening of publication frequency.7) Although the facilitation of a web site to serve as public bulletin board to call for papers and to offer the electronic version of the journal has become a common trend, it is not yet a prevalent practice.8) Only a handful of journals in the target group are greatly cited, and the rest of the journals are rarely cited. Since number of citations is highly relevant to the quality of a journal, the quality of rarely cited journals should be improved.