The Open Access Landscape: 12. Engineering

Engineering
journals were distinguished from Technology journals based on narrower subjects and journal titles. This group includes 245 journals, which published 19,336 articles in 2013—and 21,495 in 2014.

Grades

Grade Journals %J Articles %A A/J
A

146

60%

8,192

42%

56

Free

108

74%

4,219

52%

39

Pay

38

26%

3,973

48%

105

A$ pay

11

4%

1,792

9%

163

B

43

18%

7,521

39%

175

Free

6

14%

427

6%

71

Pay

37

86%

7,094

94%

192

C

19

8%

1,356

7%

71

Free

3

16%

67

5%

22

Pay

6

32%

186

14%

31

Unk

10

53%

1,103

81%

110

D

26

11%

475

2%

18

Free

23

88%

325

68%

14

Pay

2

8%

150

32%

75

Unk

1

4%

0%

0

Table 12.1. Journals and articles by grade

Table 12.1 shows the number of journals and 2013 articles for each grade; free, pay and unknown numbers; and average articles per journal. The boldface percentages (grades) are percentages of all engineering journals and articles; others (free, pay, unk) are percentages of the grade above. All A$ journals charge APCs, so the Pay line is omitted.

Possibly noteworthy: a fairly high percentage of journals are slightly questionable—grade B—including a number of high-volume journals that charge APCs.

The small number of D journals includes these subgroups: C: 13 journals with 171 articles; D: two journals, 21 articles; E: three journals, 62 articles; H: five journals, 209 articles; S: three journals, 12 articles.

Article Volume (including all of 2014)

2014 2013 2012 2011
Journals

218

230

209

178

%Free

58%

59%

59%

63%

Articles

20,186

18,233

13,388

8,893

%Free

25%

28%

32%

47%

Table 12.2. Journals and articles by date

Table 12.2 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 eleven “unknown” journals (with 1,103 articles in 2013) are omitted. The journal numbers still don’t add up to 245 because there are some journals that didn’t publish articles in any given year—for example, four journals didn’t publish articles in 2013.

These are fairly striking numbers. While the percentage of free journals isn’t a lot lower than average for all of OA, it’s declined somewhat since 2011. What’s really changed is the number of articles in what’s clearly a growing field of OA publishing: just under half were in no-fee journals in 2011, while only one-quarter are in such journals in 2014. That’s during a period in which the number of articles more than doubled, while the number of journals publishing in any given year only increased by one-quarter.

Clearly, OA activity is increasing in engineering fields, even without considering journals founded in 2014. In all, 122 journals published more articles in 2014 than in 2013; 19 published the same number of articles; 104 published fewer. Looking at significant change, 96 (39%) published at least 10% more articles; 62 (39%) published at least 10% more articles; 62 (25%) stayed about the same; and 87 (36%) published at least 10% fewer articles, including 16 that have not yet published any articles in 2014. (The counts in this paragraph do include “unknown” journals.)

Journals No-Fee % Articles No-Fee %
Prolific

2

0%

2,231

0%

Large

23

13%

9,061

5%

Medium

55

47%

4,110

47%

Small

118

68%

3,423

67%

Sparse

47

66%

511

61%

Table 12.3. Journals by peak article volume

Table 12.3 shows the number of journals in each size category; 2013 articles for journals in that group; and what percentage is no-fee or in no-fee journals. Note that the peak is based on 2011 through the first half of 2014; there would be six journals in the Prolific category if all of 2014 was included.

Larger journals dominate engineering, and as the journal size goes up, the percentage of free journals goes down, radically for the two largest categories (which account for considerably more than half of all 2013 articles).

Fees (APCs)

APC Jour. %Fee %All Art. %Fee %All
High

5

5%

2%

897

7%

5%

Medium

21

22%

9%

1,433

11%

8%

Low

36

38%

15%

3,177

24%

17%

Nominal

32

34%

14%

7,688

58%

42%

None

140

60%

5,038

28%

Table 12.4. Journals and articles by fee range

Table 12.4 shows the number of journals in each fee range and the number of 2013 articles in those journals. To the extent that the first %Fee figures diverge from 25%, they represent deviations from the norm for all of OA—in this case, a much lower percentage of high-priced (more than $1,450) journals and somewhat higher percentages of low- and nominal-fee journals. It’s interesting that the nominal-fee journals ($8 to $200) publish most of the articles that appear in APC-charging journals.

Starting Dates and the Gold Rush

Year Total Free%
Pre-1960

1

100%

1970-79

1

100%

1980-89

3

100%

1992-93

2

50%

1994-95

1

100%

1996-97

2

50%

1998-99

6

83%

2000-01

15

67%

2002-03

15

93%

2004-05

9

67%

2006-07

25

68%

2008-09

34

44%

2010-11

76

54%

2012-13

55

44%

Table 12.5. Starting dates for engineering OA journals

Table 12.5 shows engineering OA journals by starting date, including the percentage for each date range that currently don’t charge APCs. The overall sense of a gold rush from 2006 through 2011 is certainly apparent here—except that it continues into 2012-2013, with most new journals (except 2006-2007) APC-charging and many more journals than in previous periods. (No journals began in 1960-69 or 1990-1.)

Figure 12.1. Engineering journals by starting date

Year Journals Articles Art/Jrnl
Pre-1960

1

21

21

1970-79

1

43

43

1980-89

3

202

67

1992/93

2

264

132

1994-95

1

11

11

1996-97

2

358

179

1998-99

5

120

24

2000-01

15

1,023

68

2002-03

14

637

46

2004-05

9

848

94

2006-07

24

916

38

2008-09

34

3,501

103

2010-11

74

5,153

70

2012-13

55

6,239

113

Table 12.6. Articles per journal by starting date

Figure 12.1 shows essentially the same information as Table 12.5 but in graphic form—and I think it makes the gold rush clearer. Table 12.6 shows the number of journals beginning in each time period that actually published one or more articles in 2013, the number of articles, and average articles per journal. Other than two earlier cases involving just two journals in each period, the most interesting periods may be 2004-05, 2008-09 and 2011-2012, in each case with relatively high average articles per journal.

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.

Comments are closed.