Impact of Plan-S on European Research in 10 scientific disciplines
A few weeks ago I posted already the troubling current situation for Chemistry, where out of 553 journals listed in Journal Citation Reports only 48 journals[1] are included in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), and only 11 were known to me (i.e. 2.0%).
Today I add the same analysis for nine more fields in scientific research (Bio, CompSci, Engin, Math, MatSci, Med, Phys, Psych, Social)[2][3], with similar results. Out of the total of 4773 journals listed in JCR for these disciplines, only 399 are listed in DOAJ (8.4%).
Within the field of Chemistry, the majority of the 48 JCR/DOAJ journals were not known to me, and often included local/national journals. Assuming that the same holds for the other disciplines, and using a conservative estimate for this proportion of unknown journals (at least half), one comes to the conclusion that for the ten fields of science listed below, only ca. 2-4% of scientific journals is currently compliant with Plan S.
** Out of these 48, only 11 were known to me (ca. 25%)
[1] One journal (Catalysis, Structure & Reactivity) listed in the previous blog post is in fact listed only in DOAJ, not in JCR, so should not have been included in Appendix 2 of the previous post.
[2] The JCR categories included in this analysis are listed in Appendix 1. These were chosen because of seeming to have one theme in common (see Appendix 1), although probably for biology some others categories might have been included (e.g. plant sciences, zoology), but then the decision becomes arbitrary and hence only the ones listed in Appendix 1 were included.
[3] The list of journals per category is given in this Google Sheet.
BIOCHEMISTRY & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION
BIOLOGY
BIOPHYSICS
BIOTECHNOLOGY & APPLIED MICROBIOLOGY
CHEMISTRY, APPLIED
CHEMISTRY, INORGANIC & NUCLEAR
CHEMISTRY, MEDICINAL
CHEMISTRY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY
CHEMISTRY, ORGANIC
CHEMISTRY, PHYSICAL
COMPUTER SCIENCE, CYBERNETICS
COMPUTER SCIENCE, HARDWARE & ARCHITECTURE
COMPUTER SCIENCE, INFORMATION SYSTEMS
COMPUTER SCIENCE, INTERDISCIPLINARY APPLICATIONS
COMPUTER SCIENCE, SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
COMPUTER SCIENCE, THEORY & METHODS
ENGINEERING, BIOMEDICAL
ENGINEERING, CHEMICAL
ENGINEERING, CIVIL
ENGINEERING, ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONIC
ENGINEERING, ENVIRONMENTAL
ENGINEERING, GEOLOGICAL
ENGINEERING, INDUSTRIAL
ENGINEERING, MANUFACTURING
ENGINEERING, MARINE
ENGINEERING, MECHANICAL
ENGINEERING, MULTIDISCIPLINARY
ENGINEERING, OCEAN
ENGINEERING, PETROLEUM
MATHEMATICS, APPLIED
MATHEMATICS, INTERDISCIPLINARY APPLICATIONS
MATERIALS SCIENCE, CERAMICS
MATERIALS SCIENCE, CHARACTERIZATION & TESTING
MATERIALS SCIENCE, COATINGS & FILMS
MATERIALS SCIENCE, COMPOSITES
MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY
MATERIALS SCIENCE, PAPER & WOOD
MATERIALS SCIENCE, TEXTILES
MEDICAL INFORMATICS
MEDICAL LABORATORY TECHNOLOGY
MEDICINE, LEGAL
MEDICINE, GENERAL & INTERNAL
MEDICINE, RESEARCH & EXPERIMENTAL
PHYSICS, ATOMIC, MOLECULAR & CHEMICAL
PHYSICS, CONDENSED MATTER
PHYSICS, FLUIDS & PLASMAS
PHYSICS, MATHEMATICAL
PHYSICS, MULTIDISCIPLINARY
PHYSICS, NUCLEAR
PHYSICS, PARTICLES & FIELDS
PSYCHOLOGY, APPLIED
PSYCHOLOGY, BIOLOGICAL
PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL
PSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL
PSYCHOLOGY, EDUCATIONAL
PSYCHOLOGY, EXPERIMENTAL
PSYCHOLOGY, MATHEMATICAL
PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY
PSYCHOLOGY, PSYCHOANALYSIS
PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL
SOCIAL WORK
SOCIAL SCIENCES, BIOMEDICAL
SOCIAL SCIENCES, INTERDISCIPLINARY
SOCIAL SCIENCES, MATHEMATICAL METHODS
SOCIOLOGY
Today I add the same analysis for nine more fields in scientific research (Bio, CompSci, Engin, Math, MatSci, Med, Phys, Psych, Social)[2][3], with similar results. Out of the total of 4773 journals listed in JCR for these disciplines, only 399 are listed in DOAJ (8.4%).
Within the field of Chemistry, the majority of the 48 JCR/DOAJ journals were not known to me, and often included local/national journals. Assuming that the same holds for the other disciplines, and using a conservative estimate for this proportion of unknown journals (at least half), one comes to the conclusion that for the ten fields of science listed below, only ca. 2-4% of scientific journals is currently compliant with Plan S.
| Field | Nr. in JCR | Nr. in DOAJ |
|---|---|---|
| Bio | 650 | 89 (13.7%) |
| Chem | 553 | 48 (8.7%)** |
| CompSci | 495 | 22 (4.4%) |
| Engin | 401 | 22 (5.5%) |
| Math | 550 | 24 (4.4%) |
| MatSci | 454 | 44 (9.7%) |
| Med | 360 | 74 (20.6%) |
| Phys | 395 | 32 (8.1%) |
| Psych | 529 | 25 (4.7%) |
| Social | 386 | 19 (4.9%) |
| TOTAL | 4773 | 399 (8.4%) |
** Out of these 48, only 11 were known to me (ca. 25%)
[1] One journal (Catalysis, Structure & Reactivity) listed in the previous blog post is in fact listed only in DOAJ, not in JCR, so should not have been included in Appendix 2 of the previous post.
[2] The JCR categories included in this analysis are listed in Appendix 1. These were chosen because of seeming to have one theme in common (see Appendix 1), although probably for biology some others categories might have been included (e.g. plant sciences, zoology), but then the decision becomes arbitrary and hence only the ones listed in Appendix 1 were included.
[3] The list of journals per category is given in this Google Sheet.
Appendix 1. JCR categories included
Bio
BIOCHEMICAL RESEARCH METHODSBIOCHEMISTRY & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION
BIOLOGY
BIOPHYSICS
BIOTECHNOLOGY & APPLIED MICROBIOLOGY
Chem
CHEMISTRY, ANALYTICALCHEMISTRY, APPLIED
CHEMISTRY, INORGANIC & NUCLEAR
CHEMISTRY, MEDICINAL
CHEMISTRY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY
CHEMISTRY, ORGANIC
CHEMISTRY, PHYSICAL
CompSci
COMPUTER SCIENCE, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCECOMPUTER SCIENCE, CYBERNETICS
COMPUTER SCIENCE, HARDWARE & ARCHITECTURE
COMPUTER SCIENCE, INFORMATION SYSTEMS
COMPUTER SCIENCE, INTERDISCIPLINARY APPLICATIONS
COMPUTER SCIENCE, SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
COMPUTER SCIENCE, THEORY & METHODS
Engin
ENGINEERING, AEROSPACEENGINEERING, BIOMEDICAL
ENGINEERING, CHEMICAL
ENGINEERING, CIVIL
ENGINEERING, ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONIC
ENGINEERING, ENVIRONMENTAL
ENGINEERING, GEOLOGICAL
ENGINEERING, INDUSTRIAL
ENGINEERING, MANUFACTURING
ENGINEERING, MARINE
ENGINEERING, MECHANICAL
ENGINEERING, MULTIDISCIPLINARY
ENGINEERING, OCEAN
ENGINEERING, PETROLEUM
Math
MATHEMATICSMATHEMATICS, APPLIED
MATHEMATICS, INTERDISCIPLINARY APPLICATIONS
MatSci
MATERIALS SCIENCE, BIOMATERIALSMATERIALS SCIENCE, CERAMICS
MATERIALS SCIENCE, CHARACTERIZATION & TESTING
MATERIALS SCIENCE, COATINGS & FILMS
MATERIALS SCIENCE, COMPOSITES
MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY
MATERIALS SCIENCE, PAPER & WOOD
MATERIALS SCIENCE, TEXTILES
Med
MEDICAL ETHICSMEDICAL INFORMATICS
MEDICAL LABORATORY TECHNOLOGY
MEDICINE, LEGAL
MEDICINE, GENERAL & INTERNAL
MEDICINE, RESEARCH & EXPERIMENTAL
Phys
PHYSICS, APPLIEDPHYSICS, ATOMIC, MOLECULAR & CHEMICAL
PHYSICS, CONDENSED MATTER
PHYSICS, FLUIDS & PLASMAS
PHYSICS, MATHEMATICAL
PHYSICS, MULTIDISCIPLINARY
PHYSICS, NUCLEAR
PHYSICS, PARTICLES & FIELDS
Psych
PSYCHOLOGYPSYCHOLOGY, APPLIED
PSYCHOLOGY, BIOLOGICAL
PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL
PSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL
PSYCHOLOGY, EDUCATIONAL
PSYCHOLOGY, EXPERIMENTAL
PSYCHOLOGY, MATHEMATICAL
PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY
PSYCHOLOGY, PSYCHOANALYSIS
PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL
Social
SOCIAL ISSUESSOCIAL WORK
SOCIAL SCIENCES, BIOMEDICAL
SOCIAL SCIENCES, INTERDISCIPLINARY
SOCIAL SCIENCES, MATHEMATICAL METHODS
SOCIOLOGY
A few questions:
ReplyDelete1) Why use JCR as measuring stick? Though it is used a lot, it also is limited in size and known for its biases (by language, country and OA status).
2) Not all DOAJ journals will be compliant when also looking at license and copyright retention. I counted those a few weeks ago: https://twitter.com/jeroenbosman/status/1043829904658378753
3) In the longer terms we have to ask the question what would go wrong if e.g. mathematicians would submit to 24 open journals in stead of 526 closed ones?
1) Journal of Citation Reports is the default one, for a good reason (quality control). Please give references for "limited in size" and "biases".
ReplyDelete2) Did not include this indeed. I do remember seeing something like this on Twitter, probably your Tweet. Would be interesting to have a list of those 30% to narrow down the numbers even more. The number of journals that are not compliant would only go up, making the problem even bigger.
3) I cannot speak for mathematicians, but only for myself. In chemistry, we read mainly the journals in our (sub)field of chemistry, especially those who have trusted editors, an excellent track record of peer reviewing, include language editing, etc. Furthermore, it does not make sense for a synthesis paper to be send to a computational chemistry journal. By publishing in the appropriate journal, one reaches the correct audience, and creates impact and advances science. Of course I could send it somewhere else, where it will not be read, or send it only to arxiv (or publish it on my website). I want my papers to be read, and used as inspiration.