Walt at Random

Agriculture includes aquaculture, fisheries and other aspects of raising and processing plants and animals, including food and some aspects of nutrition. This topic includes 309 journals, which published a total of 16,880 articles in 2013.

Grades

Table 2.1. Journals and articles by grade and price

Table 2.1 shows the number of journals and 2013 articles for each grade, the free, pay and unknown numbers, and average articles per journal. Note that boldface percentages (grades) are percentages of all agriculture journals, while others (free, pay, unknown) are percentages of the particular grade (so, for example, 7% of the journals were grade B, and 32% of that 7% were free).

Since A$ means an APC of $1,000 or more, all A$ journals are in the Pay category, so that isn’t listed as a separate line. It’s not particularly surprising that those journals tend to have the most articles—and it’s typical of OA in general that journals with APCs publish more articles (on the whole) than those without.

The small number of D journals (with even fewer articles proportionally) include these subgroups: C: 11 journals, 25 articles in 2013; D: 5 journals, 21 articles; E: 4 journals, 16 articles; H: 10 journals, 1,056 articles; N: one journal, four articles; S: 8 journals, 26 articles. Worth noting: two journals make up the bulk of the H articles—one with 263 articles in 2013 and one with 536, for a total of 799 of the 1,056. Neither had any articles in the first half of 2014 when checked in late 2014—but when checked in early 2015, the one with 263 articles in 2013 shows 298 articles for 2014, so it’s apparently back. The other (with 536 in 2013) had eight articles in 2014, so it’s nearly comatose.

Article Volume (including all of 2014)

Table 2.2. Journals and articles by date

Table 2.2 shows the number of free and APC-charging journals that published articles in each year, including all of 2014, how many articles those journals published, and what percentage were free.

The 17 “unknown” journals (with 497 articles in 2013) are omitted. The journal numbers still don’t add up because there are some journals that don’t publish articles in any given year—eleven of them in 2013, for example.

The percentage of free journals is fairly typical for all of OA and didn’t change significantly during this time; the percentage of free articles is higher than the overall OA average and, as with that average, declined in recent years.

Is OA activity in agriculture declining? It’s really not possible to say, given that new journals may have emerged, that some journals post articles months after the publication date, and that some journals have erratic publishing patterns, but at least it seems likely that growth slowed in 2014. More specifically, the same set of journals published 917 fewer articles than in 2013—but note that one journal (discussed in the previous section, going from 536 to 8) accounts for more than half of that difference.

Looked at on a journal-by-journal basis, 125 journals published more articles in 2014 than in 2013; 24 had the same number; 160 published fewer articles in 2014 than in 2013. In terms of significant change, 89 (28%) had at least 10% more articles in 2014, 87 (28%) were relatively unchanged (-9% to +9%), and 133 (43%) declined by 10% or more, including 14 that have yet to post any 2014 articles (some of which may be small journals with long posting delays.)

Table 2.3. Journals by peak article volume

Table 2.3 shows the number of journals in each size category, 2013 articles for journals in that group, and what percentage is in no-fee journals. There are no prolific agriculture journals (1,000 or more articles per year), and sparse journals are much less common than overall. That the percentage of no-fee journals goes down as the article frequency goes up is a consistent and expected pattern.

Fees (APCs)

Table 2.4. Journals and articles by fee range

Table 2.4 shows the number of journals in each fee range (High: $1,451+; Medium: $601 to $1,450; Low: $201-$600; Nominal: $8 to $200) and the number of 2013 articles for those journals.

Since the fee ranges are based on quartiles of this study universe, deviations from 25% in the first %Fee column represent differences between agricultural journals and OA as a whole—e.g., far fewer very expensive journals and generally lower APCs throughout, with most fee-paid articles in journals with low or nominal APCs.

It seemed worth considering whether there’s a statistical correlation between APC level and volume of articles (as indicated by peak year, 2011-2013). That is, does the number of articles change in a predictable manner as the APC changes? The answer, at least for agriculture OA journals, is no: the correlation is 0.06, far too low to be considered of any significance.

Starting Dates and the Gold Rush

Table 2.5. Starting dates for agriculture OA journals

Table 2.5 shows agriculture OA journals by starting date, including the percentage of journals started in a given date range that currently don’t charge APCs. For DOAJ journals as a whole, there’s a sense of a gold rush for APC-charging journals starting in 2006—and agriculture is very much typical. Note that, except for odd cases in early year, the bulk of new journals was consistently free until 2005—and has dropped significantly since then.

Figure 2.1 shows essentially the same information as Table 2.5, but as a graph with lines for free and APC-charging journals. Note the wide gap from 1996 through 2005, with free journals growing at a much faster rate—and the jumps in APC-charging journals since then.

Figure 2.1. Agriculture journals by starting date

Table 2.6. Articles per journal by starting date

Finally, Table 2.6 shows journals that published articles in 2013, when they started, and the average articles per journal. There are four unusual time periods: four journals beginning in 1990-91, 14 beginning 1998-99, 42 beginning 2008-2009 and 58 beginning 2010-2011. Those journals average 70 to 83 articles per journal per year; the rest all average fewer than 60, in most cases fewer than 50.

Definitions and notes

See The Open Access Landscape: 1. Background for definitions and notes

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