1. Disciplinary differences in full OA journal prevalence, pricing, and journal conversion rates
Mikael Laakso, D.Sc. (Econ.)
Associate Professor, Information Systems Science
Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki, Finland
Presentation at the ESAC Workshop
@mikaellaakso

2. My background and perspective
Research has been focusing on how open access has been introduced and changed scholarly journal publishing.
Member of the H2020 Commission Expert Group "Future of Scholarly Publishing and Scholarly Communication (FSP)”
Member of the strategy group for journal publisher negotiations on behalf of the Finnish university library consortium (FinElib).

3. Agenda
Prevalence
How much is getting published through full open access journals?
Pricing
What is the price distribution of journals and published articles?
Journal conversion rates
How is the landscape evolving, what is the relationship between flipping journals and new ones being started?

4. Various indexes to choose from, all with different implications
DOAJ
ROAD
Scopus
Web of Science
Dimensions
Ulrichsweb
Crossref/DOI
Commercial/non-commercial
Inclusion of subscription content
Open/Closed Data/API
Scope of inclusion of open access content
Criteria for inclusion of OA content

5. For a DOAJ-based analysis please look up this book
Free e-book by Walt Crawford
Released 29th of May 2018
187 pages of bibliometric & economic analysis of all journals in the DOAJ
Open dataset

6. Population: Scopus-indexed journals included in either DOAJ or ROAD
Journals in either DOAJ or ROAD: 3759
Additional 372 Scopus OA journals included that were neither in DOAJ nor ROAD.
DOAJ+ ROAD
1805
DOAJ
865
ROAD
1089
In neither (subscription journals): 18799

7. Partial manual data collection
Collecting missing APC data
Determining year OA publishing was initiated
Classifying journals as either Born OA/Converted OA
Year added to DOAJ/ROAD
DOAJ metadata ”Year open access content began”
Editorials, text on website
Year of website creation
Publisher change, license change
Year of initial PDF metadata
Appendix I. Assumptions for determining “born” versus “converted” and date of conversion
When there is information on the website that allows determination of the conversion date or that the journal is born OA that date is used. Otherwise: •
When a start date cannot be determined any other way, the entry date in the DOAJ is used and the journal is assumed converted. When a journal was launched after 2000 and all volumes are available OA, it is assumed to have been born OA.
Journals with Ulrichweb start dates or article archives before 1993 are assumed to be converted.
When start dates are in the in the mid-1990s and all back issues are available the journal is assumed to be born OA particularly when the websites looks to be mid-1990 vintage.
When journals are converted OA from before 1993 and digital articles are available OA after mid-1990s it is assumed the journal became OA with the first available OA available volume.
When articles are available OA before mid-1990s, it is assumed it is assumed back issues were made OA at the point of conversion and if no other information is available, the DOAJ entry date is used.
SciELO journals are assumed converted OA and the date of entry into SciELO or if not available, the first SciELO volume is used for the date the journal became OA.
Redalyc journals are assumed to be converted OA and the earliest volume available on the website is assumed to be the conversion date or 2002 if there are articles available before 2002.

8. The big financial picture: annual total APCs
Unpublished preliminary results

9. OA% of all articles in Scopus
Open access in Scopus
OA% of all articles in Scopus
16 %
17 %
18 %
19 %
20 %
22 %
Unpublished preliminary results

10. APC pricing levels of OA journals 2016
Unpublished preliminary results

11. Focus on APC journals

12. APC pricing levels of OA journal articles published 2016
Unpublished preliminary results

13. Focus on APC articles

14. OA journal articles published in free/APC-based journals per publisher type
Average APC
705 USD
Average APC 1140 USD
Average APC 1629 USD
Unpublished preliminary results

15. Creation/Conversion of OA journals per year by publisher type (cumulative)
Unpublished preliminary results

16. Annual OA article counts per publisher type and journal ”OA origin”
Unpublished preliminary results

17. Activity in converting/creating new journals per discipline
© Hanken
Unpublished preliminary results

18. Unpublished preliminary results
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
Life Sciences 14 16 19 20 23 21
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 25 27
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 13 15 24 22
Immunology and Microbiology 18
Neuroscience 8 9 12 17
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics
Social Sciences 6 7 10 11
Arts and Humanities 5
Business, Management and Accounting 3 4
Decision Sciences
Economics, Econometrics and Finance
Psychology
Physical Sciences
Chemical Engineering
Chemistry
Computer Science
Earth and Planetary Sciences
Energy 2
Engineering
Environmental Science
Materials Science
Mathematics
Physics and Astronomy
Health Sciences
Medicine
Nursing
Veterinary 28
Dentistry
Health Professions
General 34 49 62
Unpublished preliminary results
Open access journal articles as % of all articles in Scopus

19. Unpublished preliminary results

20. Unpublished preliminary results

21. Active Journal Count Change 2010 vs 2016
Unpublished preliminary results
OA %
Change
+8%
+5%
+9%
% Free Change
-6%
-4%
-8%
-3%

22. Article-level Development 2010 vs 2016
Unpublished preliminary results

23. Summary
A substantial part of the growth of OA journals has been fueled by the creation of new journals which charge an author-side fee.
The price spectrum is remains very wide.
Many disciplines still have low availability of OA journals, particularly so regarding journals ranked highly based on received citations.
There is a need to monitor journal APC price changes over time.
In the future no-one should have to count articles by hand or have to conduct studies based on sampling only a part of journals in an index.

24. Thank You!
© Hanken