[GOAL] Re: Gold OA: Publication costs and journal impact factors

[Jan Velterop]

The misleading potential of these figures is in the column Type (percentages). This refers to the percentage of journals with charges in a certain price range. The percentages of articles published for which these prices have been paid will likely show that the vast majority is in full OA journals.

A similar effect occurs in the oft-mentioned fact that "the majority of 'gold' OA journals don't levy article charges". Undoubtedly true. But that 'majority' is unlikely to have published, in the aggregate, more than a tiny fraction of the total OA articles published. Or have any Impact Factor at all.

Jan Velterop


On 12 Oct 2012, at 16:30, ANDREW Theo wrote:

> Hi Ross and others,
>  
> Apologies – friday afternoon gremlins have crept into our blogging platform breaking the link. Here’s a sanitised extract of the data:
>  
> Price range
> JIF Range
> JIF Mean
> JIF Median
> Number of articles
> Type
> £0-£999
> 2.263 – 10.472
> 4.849
> 4.537
> 41
> 44% hybrid 56% full OA
> £1000-£1999
> 0.856 -15.389
> 6.328
> 5.117
> 108
> 63% hybrid 37% full OA
> £2000-£2999
> 0.986 – 12.594
> 4.411
> 3.441
> 61
> 100% hybrid
> < £3000
> 5.971 – 15.710
> 12.363
> 10.881
> 17
> 100% hybrid
>  
>  
> The hugely elevated costs for some high impact factor journals are plainly not justified, and is another reason why the fascination with impact factors is detrimental.
>  
> Put simply, looking at the figures large research institutions cannot afford Gold OA as it currently stands so Green OA will have to step up and be counted.
>  
> Theo
>  
> From: Ross Mounce [mailto:ross.mounce at gmail.com] 
> Sent: 12 October 2012 15:39
> To: Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci); ANDREW Theo
> Subject: Re: [GOAL] Gold OA: Publication costs and journal impact factors
>  
> Dear Theo, 
>  
> That link didn't work for me. I agree with those observations. I also find it ludicrous that such 'high impact factor' journals feel they can charge much higher prices for hybrid gold (even though they provide exactly the same services) relative to the 'lower impact factor' journals who may even be of a higher technical quality e.g. Pensoft Publishing journals & and their XML and other additional services.
> 
> Have you seen my plot of Gold OA prices by publisher/society? 
> http://rossmounce.co.uk/2012/09/04/the-gold-oa-plot-v0-2/
> and version 0.1 here http://rossmounce.co.uk/2012/08/30/a-visualization-of-gold-open-access-options/
> 
> The data behind this is also freely available here: 
> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtbO6mZEvieCdDFzdkVNQld6Mnc5NEpGWVlRUVhvM3c
>  
> perhaps it might be nice to merge our data if there is any overlap?
>  
> Best,
>  
> Ross
> 
> 
> On 12 October 2012 15:11, ANDREW Theo <Theo.Andrew at ed.ac.uk> wrote:
> Dear All,
> 
> I'd like to draw your attention to a piece of work we have carried out which looks at Gold OA fees and journal impact factors:
> 
> http://libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk/openscholarship/2012/10/02/impact-cost/
> 
> In short, it appears that 1) hybrid journals generally charge more than full OA journals independent of journal impact factor, and 2) hybrid journals with high impact factors charge significantly more than other types of journal for gold open access.
> 
> I find this apparent correlation between journal impact factor and cost worrying and would welcome feedback. Is this something that other people are seeing or have we got our facts wrong?
> 
> Kind regards, Theo
> __________________________
> Theo Andrew
> Research Publications Service
> Edinburgh University Library
> 
> tel.      0131 651 3850
> web.   http://bit.ly/UoE-RPS
> post.   4 Buccleuch Place,
>              Edinburgh, EH8 9LW.
> skype. theoandrew
> 
> 
> --
> The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
> Scotland, with registration number SC005336.
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> GOAL mailing list
> GOAL at eprints.org
> http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/goal
> 
> 
>  
> -- 
> -- 
> -/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
> Ross Mounce
> PhD Student & Open Knowledge Foundation Panton Fellow
> Fossils, Phylogeny and Macroevolution Research Group
> University of Bath, 4 South Building, Lab 1.07
> http://about.me/rossmounce
> -/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
> _______________________________________________
> GOAL mailing list
> GOAL at eprints.org
> http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/goal

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/pipermail/goal/attachments/20121012/de58b8fe/attachment-0001.html