I thought it might be interesting to glance at some existing gold OA journals at least partly devoted to linguistics in light of editorial goings-on at a notable subscription “hybrid” journal in the field.
This is a very incomplete group: it’s only journals I’d grouped into Language & Literature and that showed “linguis” somewhere within the DOAJ record (usually in the subject or keyword fields). That omits journals partly devoted to linguistics that fell into any number of other primary subject areas such as anthropology. But it’s a start…
The Basic Numbers
This group of journals consists of 275 journals (including only those graded “A” and “B” in The Gold OA Landscape 2011-2014). The journals published 5,954 articles in 2011; 6,725 in 2012; 6,973 in 2013; and a slight drop to 6,415 in 2014.
Article Processing Charges
Twelve of the 275 journals have article processing charges; the remaining 264 are funded through other means.
Those twelve journals did publish more articles per journal than the others: in total, 1,007 in 2011; 1,298 in 2012; 1,418 in 2013; and 1,493 in 2014.
APCs range from $37 to $600, but only one journal charged more than $400 and only three charged more than $300. (The only fee-charging journal with more than 200 articles in 2014 charged $40.)
The maximum paid for APCs in the twelve fee-charging journals in 2014 was $364,146; that comes out to a weighted average of $244 per article. (The average for all articles in these journals is $56.76.)
Grades and Fees
Of the 263 no-fee journals, 250 don’t have any obvious problems. Of the thirteen graded B, two have problematic English; three have garish sites or other site problems; one features a questionable impact factor; six have minimal information; one had other issues.
Of the dozen fee-charging journals, seven don’t have obvious problems. Of the five graded B (obviously a much higher percentage than for no-fee journals), one has a questionable impact factor and four make questionable claims–actually, the same questionable claim in all four cases: they claim to be Canadian but show no indication of significant Canadian editorial involvement.
Anyway…that’s a little information about a few existing gold OA journals that are at least partially devoted to linguistics.
The Gold OA Landscape 2011-2014: Language and Literature
Just a few notes in addition to what’s in the excerpted version–hoping this might encourage a few people and libraries to buy the paperback or site-licensed PDF, or find ways to help me continue this research.
- Most journals in this field are small, even by the standards of humanities and social sciences: 350 published 18 articles or fewer in 2014, as compared to 91 with 19 to 30 articles, 51 with 31 to 50 articles, 24 with 51 to 120 articles…and eight journals with more than 120 articles in 2014. (Seven of those eight journals charge APCs–but the one that doesn’t published one-quarter of all the articles in the big eight journals.)
- Journals in 55 countries published articles in 2014. Only one country–Brazil–accounted for 1,000 or more articles. United States and Canada followed (with more than 900 articles each–although that includes the Canadian journals that aren’t very Canadian). Spain was the only other country with more than 660 articles.
As always, there’s more in the book.
Quick status report: as of this morning (November 5, 2015):
- At least 2,306 downloads of the Cites & Insights issue have happened
- Seven copies of the book have been purchased, in addition to my own copy: Six paperback, one PDF ebook. That’s one copy for every three hundred downloads. [Note added November 6, 2015: PDF ebook sales have now doubled–another copy was purchased. Total sales are still single-digit, but it’s progress.]
