[GOAL] Elsevier as an open access publisher

[Arthur Smith]

I agree with Ross, concluding that Elsevier is a major OA publisher based on number of journals is misleading, so I thought I’d try to come up with some figures to address this.

 

After deconstructing Elsevier’s OA price list (https://www.elsevier.com/__data/promis_misc/j.custom97.pdf why this couldn’t be a simple spreadsheet is beyond me… if anyone wants a copy please contact me) and running the available ISSNs through WoS we arrive at the following figures for 2016:

 


2016

Elsevier

PLOS


Articles

 

 


OA no fee

6176

 


OA with fee

4596

23147


Hybrid

343338

 


Journals

 

 


OA no fee

300

 


OA with fee

197

8


Hybrid

2145

 


Articles/Journals

 

 


OA no fee

21

 


OA with fee

23

2893


Hybrid

160

 

 

I’ve included PLOS here for comparison. 

 

Elsevier, despite having nearly 500 fully OA journals, published less than half what PLOS did in 2016. And their rate of publication is also low. Their OA journals publish about 1/8 the number of articles per year compared to their hybrid journals – only ~20 articles/year, hardly stellar performers, probably only 1-2 issues per year. This supports the previous discussion that these OA journals are not representative of Elsevier’s subscription journals. Furthermore, articles published in OA journals account for only 3% of Elsevier’s total article output.

 

If Elsevier’s 2015 value of 20,000 OA articles is correct, then half of the OA articles are being derived from hybrid journals. (I’ve checked this on WoS too, in 2015 their OA journals had just over 10,086 articles.)

 

Best,

Arthur

 

From: goal-bounces at eprints.org [mailto:goal-bounces at eprints.org] On Behalf Of Ross Mounce
Sent: 13 January 2017 20:48
To: Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci)
Subject: Re: [GOAL] Elsevier as an open access publisher

 

 

On 13 January 2017 at 16:57, Heather Morrison <Heather.Morrison at uottawa.ca> wrote:

Elsevier is now one of the world’s largest open access publishers as measured by the number of fully OA journals published. What are the implications?

 

There are precisely no implications.

 

The number of journals is an utterly irrelevant measure, but I'm assuming you already knew this. 

Journals are just vessels for content. It is actual content that is important.

Article volume is what counts in publishing (economically), and Elsevier are nowhere near the largest when it comes to immediate OA publishing. 

 

Most of Elsevier's fully OA journals are recently created and are low-volume. They can create and close (e.g. https://www.journals.elsevier.com/new-negatives-in-plant-science/ ) journals at the click of button. 

 

Perhaps though this is part of Elsevier's strategy - at a very very superficial level (e.g. counting journal titles) it looks like they are deeply invested in open access publishing. I hope no politicians or librarians are fooled by this simple ruse.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Ross

 

 

 

 

 

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