Walt at Random

Ecology includes environmental fields. This topic includes 153 journals, which published a total of 8,295 articles in 2013 and 8,754 in 2014.

Grades

Table 9.1. Journals and articles by grade

Table 9.1 shows the number of journals and 2013 articles for each grade; the free, pay and unkown numbers; and average articles per journal. Boldface percentages (grades) are percentages of all ecology journals, where others (Free, Pay, Unk) are percentages of the grade above. All A$ journals are pay, and the redundant row is omitted.

As seems fairly typical, particularly for STEM, the A$ journals publish by far the most articles per journal, and—with the exception of D journals, an odd group—journals with APCs generally publish more articles than those without.

The small number of journals with much smaller numbers of articles proportionally include these subgroups: C (apparently ceased), three journals and a total of one article; D (dying): five journals, 22 articles; E (erratic): one journal, 23 articles; H (hiatus?): five journals, 142 articles; S (small): three journals, ten articles.

Article Volume (including all of 2014)

Table 9.2. Journals and articles by date

Table 9.2 shows the number of free and APC-charging journals that published articles each year, including all of 2014; how many articles those journals published; and what percent was free or in free journals. The seven unknown journals (with 284 articles in 2013 are omitted from Table 9.2. The number of journals still may not add up, as there’s at least one journal that didn’t publish articles in any given year—exactly one in the case of 2013.

The percentage of free journals is relatively low for OA in general and didn’t change significantly. The percentage of articles in free journals is quite low and basically unchanged. The number of articles grows each year, even ignoring journals that began too late to be included in this study, although with somewhat lower growth from 2013 to 2014.

Looked at on a journal-by-journal basis, 65 journals published more articles in 2014 than in 2013, 79 published fewer, and nine published the same number. For significant change, 62 (41%) published at least 10% more articles; 26 (17%) published roughly the same number; and 65 (42%) published at least 10% fewer—including eleven journals that either didn’t publish any articles (yet) in 2014 or, in a couple of cases, have become problematic (e.g., popping up potential malware).

Table 9.3. Journals by peak article volume

Table 9.3 shows the number of journals in each size category, 2013 articles for journals in that group, and what percentage is or is in no-fee journals. There are no prolific ecology journals. All but one of the large journals charges APCs, and that one isn’t as large as the rest. Notably, the bulk of no-APC journals are either small or sparse.

Fees (APCs)

Table 9.4. Journals and articles by fee range

Table 2.4 shows the number of journals in each fee range and the number of 2013 articles in those journals; the seven “unknown” journals are omitted. %Fee is the percentage of all fee-charging journals; $All is the percentage of all journals and articles (except unknowns).

These are unusual numbers—specifically, not only are there very few high-APC journals ($1,451 and up), but those journals don’t publish very many articles. Since fee ranges are based on overall quartiles, any deviations from 25% in the first %Fee column represent differences between ecology journals and OA as a whole—far fewer high-priced journals and moderately more with low and nominal prices (but most of the articles are in low-APC and medium-APC journals).

Is there a statistical correlation between APC level and peak articlke volume? No; the Pearson’s Coefficient is a very low 0.06

Starting Dates and the Gold Rush

Table 9.5. Starting dates for ecology OA journals

Table 9.5 shows ecology OA journals by starting date, including the percentages of journal starting in a given date range that currently don’t charge APCs. There’s a sense of a gold rush for DOAJ journals as a whole, with many more APC-charging journals starting in 2006, and that seems to be true here, except starting earlier. Relatively few journals started before 2004, but most of those that did are free; since 2004, most typically charge APCs (with 2006-07 a break in the pattern).

Figure 9.1 shows essentially the same information as Table 9.5 but as a graph with lines for free and APC-charging journals. Markers appear for APC-charging journals so that isolated periods are visible (e.g., 1960-69, 2000-01). Note that no ecology OA journals began before 1960.

Figure 9.1. Ecology journals by starting date

Table 9.6 shows journals that published articles in 2013, when they started, and the average articles (in 2013) per journal. Interesting rows are 1970-79, 1996-97 and 2000-01, with distinctly more prolific journals than in most other years.

Table 9.6. Articles per journal by starting date

Definitions and notes

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

If you’re interested in a book-form version of this material (with an additional bonus graph added in each chapter), let me know, either in a comment or by email to waltcrawford at gmail dot com

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