[UPDATE June 3, 2022: No responses were received here. Two responses were received to a shorter related tweetstream. Neither response convinced me that either table is particularly useful in the Country book, and they won’t be included there. The data remains, and I’ll probably retain it in future datasets if any.]
I’m close to finishing GOA7 and thinking about the country book. I have two questions. Responses (email or comment) by May 2 would be most helpful. (Relatively few people download the country books, but I’m hoping…)
1. Are the starting-date tables useful?
They’re already tables with five broad date ranges rather than graphs with two-year increments, but I wonder whether they serve any purpose at all.
[Inclination: to remove them.]
2. Are the publisher category tables useful?
This is especially a question given that this country book excludes the Big 11–but then, the fact that the Big 11 include one society, two universities, and two OA publishers along with six traditional publishers–and that one OA publisher now has more articles and revenue than the biggest traditional publishing group, which swallowed up at least two OA publishers–make me really question the usefulness of these tables.
I’m going to be asking that second question about GOA8 as well (if there is one).
In this case–for future GOA editions, if any–dropping the tables would also mean dropping the PubCat column, but not publisher names.
[Inclination: to remove them.]
Removing both may reduce the book size slightly, by making it possible to do more two-page profiles, and will leave a bit more room for commentary in other cases.
Let me know what you think. If you’re not aware that the country books exist, well, that’s a different issue.
