In the latest SPARC Open Access Newsletter, Peter Suber posts the results of research with Caroline Sutton on scholarly society publishers with open access journals. At its core is a list of open access journals affiliated with scholarly societies and various characteristics associated; the post contains some analysis. The list and analysis also considers society journals with hybrid open access options.
The information is quite interesting, and practical (for decision-makers and OA advocates). The authors note that they’d like to explore the topic in greater depth. Here, then, are my comments — hopefully useful for Phase Two.
The number of societies involved, and the number of journals published, is large, accounting for 16% of the Directory of Open Access Journals (450 out of 2900). The number of open access journals is considerably larger than the number of journals with hybrid OA options (450 vs. 73).
The geographic base of OA-publishing societies is broad — 57 countries/regions — compared to just 5 countries/regions with hybrid journals (93% of which is composed of the US and UK). (Note: I’m not clear whether the “geographic location” listing in the chart is based on the society’s location or the journal’s. For example, European Physical Journal is published by Societá Italiana di Fisica; the location is listed as “Europe”. I’d appreciate if the authors could clarify this.)
Similarly, the publisher:journal ratio for open access journals is much lower than that of hybrid journals. “Most societies publishing OA journals publish just one. […] Only five societies publish just one hybrid journal.” To suggest some possible causes for this, it might be that societies publishing multiple journals do so because publishing is a profitable endeavor for them, and therefore they’re more concerned about loss of revenue. Or perhaps societies with more emphasis on publishing are simply more hesitant to make rash decisions with their journals. Maybe it’s because their executives receive bonuses based on the financial performance of the publishing division. These might be avenues for the authors to explore in Phase Two....
I hope, concurrent with the Phase Two research, the authors refine this for publication in a journal. That’ll make a more powerful citation and get it seen by more readers. It’ll also force the authors to iron out some of the niggling methodological issues, including those noted here and in the original post itself....
Some information I’d like to see in Phase Two, in addition to the topics already noted in the original post and those noted above:
information about society publishers with policies that permit self-archiving (from SHERPA/RoMEO)
information about society publishers whose journals are delayed OA (though I’m not sure where one would find this information)
when these journals became OA
whether these journals were born OA or converted from pre-existing toll-access journals
whether these societies also publish toll-access journals or have converted entirely to OA
a more complete listing of impact factors / Eigenfactors for these journals
a definitive listing per journal on whether the publication meets the BBB definition of OA
more clarity on the definition of “scholarly society” (e.g. the World Health Organization is listed as a publisher here; it seems a stretch to say the WHO is primarily a scholarly society; same with the American Federation of Teachers, primarily a labor union)
A final note: The authors mention that their list of scholarly societies that publish OA journals is significantly longer than recent lists of societies opposed to OA government policies (specifically, the US National Institutes of Health self-archiving mandate). The authors do caution against a direct comparison, but they leave out the fact that their list of scholarly societies is worldwide, while presumably only societies based (or with substantial members / activities) in the US would speak out about policies of the US government. I count 82 unique OA-publishing societies based in the US, plus 8 unique US societies with a hybrid-option journal; adding the 12 unique international OA-publishing societies, there are perhaps 102 OA-publishing or -offering societies who might reasonably be interested in US policy, significantly less than the 425 the authors were using in their comparison.
Someone with more time on their hands can do the cross-check of their 82 OA-publishing US societies.
PS: This is just the kind of follow-up Caroline and I hoped to get: the re-crunching of Phase One data, the methodological nits, and the suggestions for Phase Two. Thanks, Gavin.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 11/03/2007 10:46:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
