Elsevier

Elsevier in 2018: decrease in number of fully OA journals

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Highlights: in 2017, we found that Elsevier was publishing a large number of fully open access journals with no article processing charges due to society or university sponsorships. In 2018, 88 of these titles have been transferred back to the society or university. There has been a drop in the number of fully OA journals published by Elsevier, from 416 to 328 journals. The majority of Elsevier’s fully OA journals are still non-charging. The average APC for Elsevier fully OA journals in 2018 is $1,470 USD, up 6% from 2017.

Raw data – 2 excel spreadsheets (caution – this is preliminary data that is designed for quantitative analysis and does not have detailed documentation). Click to download.

Elsevier_OA_main_2018_final_v1

This is a subset of the 2018 version of the main spreadsheet for the open access article processing charges project. The columns for the 2018 – 2017 comparison on the main Data tab are D, 2018 APC publisher website original currency, and N for 2017. Pricing is from the Elsevier APC price list; “no publication charge” is our standardized term, on the Elsevier PDF this is “Fee waived for author”. If you are interested in the journals that have transferred back to a society or university, go to the next spreadsheet:

Elsevier-noapc_2017_02_16_main_Updated_2018_10_27

In 2017 we noted that there are many Elsevier journals that are “fee waived for author” due to sponsorships and decided to begin tracking these sponsorships and an interesting model of partnership, e.g. statements on the Elsevier webpage that made it clear that Elsevier was publishing on behalf of a society or university that retained copyright. Column I, the notes field for 2018, is where you will find details on journals transferred back to the publisher. This information is gathered from the Elsevier website – journal title list, not the APC price list.

E2018numberjournals

Details

 In April 2017, Elsevier was publishing 416 fully open access journals. As of April 2018, this number had decreased to 328 journals, a decrease of 88 journals or 20% of the total. Data is from the Elsevier APC price list (conversion necessary for data manipulation).E2018nonchargingjpg

Most fully OA journals published by Elsevier do not charge publication fees (61% of the total) due to sponsorship by societies or universities. This percentage is about the same as the previous year (57% non-charging). A survey conducted in 2017 found that almost all non-charging journals were published by Elsevier on behalf of a society or university, with copyright ownership retained by the society or university.

A survey of the Elsevier website for OA journals identified as non-charging in 2017 was conducted over the summer. These journals are still listed on the Elsevier website if not the APC price list and information is provided about the current status of the journals. This is a good practice. A total of 88 journals were found to have been transferred back to the society in 2017 or 2018, or scheduled to be returned to the society or university publisher.

For example, a notes about the The Revista Mexicana de Bioversidad indicated that the journal:

Transferred back to the society as of 2018
Copyright © 2018 Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

 

The average APC for Elsevier’s charging, fully OA journals in 2018 was $1,470 USD, up from $1,384 USD in 2017, an increase of 6%.

Thanks to René Duplain for data gathering.

Cite as:

Morrison, H. (2018). Elsevier in 2018: Decrease in number of fully OA journals. Sustaining the Knowledge Commons / Soutenir Les Savoirs Communs. Retrieved from https://sustainingknowledgecommons.org/2018/12/13/elsevier-in-2018-decrease-in-number-of-fully-oa-journals/

 

 

 

 

Elsevier: libre accès et droit d’auteur

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Résumé

À partir de la liste des frais de publication (APC) des revues publiées en libre accès complet par Elsevier, nous avons extrait les 282 revues ne chargeant pas d’APC pour en analyser les composantes liées au droit d’auteur. Nous avons établi que 94% de notre corpus était commandité par une société ou une université. Nous avons aussi découvert que dans 76% des cas, les droits d’auteurs revenaient au sponsor de la revue (société ou université), dans 10% à l’auteur, dans 3% des cas à Elsevier. Enfin, nous avons établi que la licence de droit d’auteur la plus revendiquée est la CC BY-NC-ND (201 sur 282).

 

À partir de la liste des frais de publication des revues publiées en libre accès ou en format hybride téléchargée sur le site d’Elsevier le 11 février 2017 (https://www.elsevier.com/about/our-business/policies/pricing)*, nous avons extrait les revues ne chargeant pas de frais de publication (APC) pour en analyser les mentions de droit d’auteur et leurs implications. Notre corpus est composé de 282 revues.

D’abord, parmi les 282 revues en libre accès complet ne chargeant pas d’APC, 94% (tableau 1) indiquaient, sur leur fiche descriptive, disponible sur le site internet d’Elsevier, une mention claire de sponsorship par une société ou une université. 6% d’entre elles ne portaient pas d’indication portant sur un parrainage par une société ou une université.

Tableau 1

2017-07-04_14-43-29

Parmi les 282 revues en libre accès complet ne chargeant pas d’APC, les entités présumées conservant les droits d’auteur se divisent ainsi (voir aussi tableau 2) :

  • 76% : les universités ou les sociétés (8% autres : possiblement les universités ou sociétés)
  • 10% : les auteurs (les composantes de l’attribution du droit d’auteur aux auteurs d’articles demeurent nébuleuses. Pour plus d’information, voir Morrison, H. (2017). Elsevier: among the world’s largest open access publishers as of 2016. https://ruor.uottawa.ca/handle/10393/35779)
  • 3% : Elsevier (1 revue portait une mention de droit d’auteur conjointe aux commanditaires et à Elsevier)
  • 3% : Information non trouvée, non spécifiée ou incertaine

Tableau 2

2017-07-04_14-44-14

Enfin, bien que la majorité des revues de notre corpus (201) publient les articles sous la licence CC BY-NC-ND (qui est la plus contraignante des licences Creative Commons, voir https://creativecommons.org/licenses/?lang=fr ), certaines revues (4) emploient la plus permissive des licences, la CC BY, alors que d’autres (37) indiquent la mention All rights reserved**. Nous n’avons pas été en mesure de trouver l’information portant sur la licence de droit d’auteur pour 40 revues (non spécifié, non trouvé, incertain). Voir tableau 3.

Tableau 3

2017-07-04_14-45-07

À noter qu’entre le 11 février et le 8 avril 2017, le nombre de revues en libre accès complet compilé par Elsevier sur une liste comprenant aussi les prix des frais de publication a diminué de 38 titres. Nous avons déterminé que dans le cas de 12 revues, ces dernières avaient été transférées de nouveau au détenteur des droits (la société ou l’université). Dans un cas, la revue a été transférée à un autre éditeur, Wolters Kluwer. Une revue n’est plus publiée. Les 12 revues dont le contrôle a été repris par la société ou l’université appuient l’argument de Morrison (2017) indiquant qu’il y a un bénéfice à la rétention des droits pour l’université ou la société. Comme le mentionne Morrison :

« Some OA activists will be disappointed in the society ownership of copyright of many of Elsevier’s Open Access journals. I see this as healthy. The alternative is likely not a vision of pure creative commons licensing with only attribution to the author; the alternative seems to be more likely to be Elsevier copyright retention. Societies and institutions that retain their copyright are free to seek alternative hosts or partners whenever their contracts with Elsevier come up for renewal. »

(H. Morrison (2017). From the Field: Elsevier as an Open Access Publisher. The Charleston Advisor 18(3), pp. 53-59(7) http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/charleston/chadv/2017/00000018/00000003/art00014)

*Cette liste est modifiée fréquemment sans préavis.

** Nous nous contentons ici d’indiquer les mentions de droits d’auteur retrouvées sur le site internet Elsevier, le site internet Science Direct sur lequel sont diffusées plusieurs revues sous contrat avec Elsevier, et sur les articles publiés par ces revues. La question demeure toutefois beaucoup plus complexe qu’elle n’y paraît.

Citation:

Dumais-Desrosiers, M. (2017). Elsevier: Libre accès et droit d’auteur. Soutenir Les Savoirs Communs. Retrieved from https://sustainingknowledgecommons.org/elsevier-libre-acces-et-droit-dauteur/

Elsevier as an open access publisher

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Just published:

Morrison, H. (2017). From the field: Elsevier as an open access publisher. The Charleston Advisor 18:3, pp. 53-59 doi https://doi.org/10.5260/chara.18.3.53

Abstract:

Highlights of this broad-brush case study of Elsevier’s Open Access (OA) journals as of 2016: Elsevier offers 511 fully OA journals and 2,149 hybrids. Most fully OA journals do not charge article processing charges (APCs). APCs of fully OA journals average $660 US ($1,731 excluding no-fee journals); hybrid OA averages $2,500. A practice termed author nominal copyright is observed, where copyright is in the name of the author although the author contract is essentially a copyright transfer. The prospects for a full Elsevier flip to OA via APC payments for articles going forward are considered and found to be problematic.

Citation: cite the original article rather than this blogpost.

Elsevier: now the world’s largest open access publisher

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Elsevier: the world’s largest open access publisher as of May 2016

** draft ** by Heather Morrison

Summary

Elsevier is now the world’s largest open access publisher as measured by the number of fully open access journals published. Elsevier has 511 fully open access journals. De Gruyter is second with 435, Hindawi third with 405. These figures are based on data from the publishers’ own websites. 315 of the 511 journals (63%) have an APC of 0 and indicate “fee not payable by author”. Sampling of the open access journals indicates that a very large percentage (90%) of the fully open access journals are sponsored by actively involved societies and institutions with most owning copyright. I argue that society copyright ownership is not a bad thing; the alternative may not be vision of pure OA but rather Elsevier copyright.

In addition, 2,149 Elsevier journals have hybrid options at 2,149 journals. There is a marked difference in pricing patterns between hybrid and open access journals. Fully open access journals are clustered at the low end of the $0 – $5,000 USD price range while hybrids’ pricing is skewed toward the higher end.

A sampling of 50 journals from the full list of Elsevier journals found that 70% feature a “supports open access” button on the about the journal page; 38% have indications of society involvement, but clear indication of society copyright ownership is much less common. There is very limited historical information provided about Elsevier journals on the freely available website, making it difficult to assess past society or institutional involvement for a large percentage of journals.

Finally, an analysis is presented of the potential for Elsevier to achieve a full flip to open access APC while retaining current revenue. Reasonably realistic estimates range from a low of $5,000 USD to a high of over $11,000 USD to cover the 2015 Elsevier annual revenue of $3 billion USD from STM and enjoy the current 37% profit rate. These rates are not realistic. Libraries and those wishing to further the transition to open access should anticipate that Elsevier will seek to continue to receive subscriptions revenue, even with broad-based support for APCs, for a long time to come.

For full details see the draft in PDF:

Elsevier and open access publishing May 2016

Data from the study of 50 Elsevier journals can be downloaded from the dataverse.

Morrison, H. (2016). Elsevier: Now the world’s largest open access publisher. Sustaining the Knowledge Commons / Soutenir Les Savoirs Communs. Retrieved from https://sustainingknowledgecommons.org/2016/05/13/elsevier-now-the-worlds-largest-open-access-publisher/