Influence of the top 10 journal publishers listed in Journal Citation Reports based on six indicators

Abstract

Purpose: : An accurate evaluation of the influence of the largest publishers in world journal publishing is a starting point for negotiating journal subscriptions and an important issue for research libraries. This study was conducted to evaluate the influence of the largest publishers based on Journal Citation Reports (JCR) indicators.Methods: From JCR 2014 to 2018 data, a unique journal list by publisher was created in Excel. The top 10 publishers were selected and evaluated in terms of the average share of six JCR indicators including the impact factor, Eigenfactor score, and article influence score, along with the number of journals, articles, and citations.Results: The top three publishers accounted for about 50% of the JCR indicators, the top five for 60%, and the top 10 for 70%. Therefore, the concentration of the top three publishers, with a share exceeding 50% for five indicators, was more intensive than has been reported in previous studies. For the top 10 publishers, not only the number of journals and articles, but also citations and the impact factor, which reflect the practical use of journals, were increasing.Conclusion: These evaluation results will be important to research libraries and librarians in deciding upon journal subscriptions using publisher information, to journal publishers trying to list their journals in JCR, and to consortium operators to negotiate strategically. Using the unique journal list created in this research process, various follow-up studies are possible. However, it is also urgent to build a standardized world journal list with accurate information.

Market share of the largest publishers in Journal Citation Reports based on journal price and article processing charge

“…Nonetheless, the total APC amount required to submit an article to each of the 11,287 fully and hybrid OA journals was about 30 million USD. The top three publishers accounted for Average per journal excluding null data; b) The number of RSC journals increased compared to the authors' previous study [2], because one journal was newly discovered due to a problem with space in the journal name.…”

“…Collecting all the JCR journal prices was difficult, to the point of impossibility. According to the authors' paper based on six JCR indicators [2], the influence of the largest journal publishers was found to be 49.1% for the top three publishers, 58.0% for the top five, and 69.4% for the top 10. The top 10 publishers are, in order, Elsevier, Springer, Wiley, Taylor & Francis (T&F), Sage, Oxford University Press (OUP), American Chemical Society (ACS), Wolters Kluwer (Kluwer), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC).…”

“…This study limited the research target to the top 10 publishers, and we collected their prices from their Korean branches or publisher websites. We estimated the price level of the non-top 10 publishers as about 30.6% of all JCR journals [2], without trying to acquire more specific price information. To estimate the market share of the top three publishers more precisely, we compared the findings of this study with the publisher revenue and subscription amounts found in annual reports and other studies.…”

“…The biggest question in the KESLI negotiations is how to evaluate the e-journal prices proposed by the publishers and how to agree and proceed with a consortium contract in which rates would increase. We studied the influence of the largest journal publishers according to Journal Citation Reports (JCR) 2014 to 2018 by using six JCR indicators, including the journal impact factor, Eigenfactor score, and article influence score, along with the number of journals, citable items, and total cites [2]. Nonetheless, regarding the influence of the largest publishers, libraries and librarians are particularly sensitive to costs, although JCR indicatorbased measures of influence are also significant.…”

“…Studies of journal subscription costs or library budgets have been limited by the reluctance of publishers and libraries to make this information public; therefore, large-scale studies on journal prices are rare [3]. Objectives: This study aimed to estimate the market share of the largest journal publishers listed in JCR using journal prices and APCs, as a follow-up study of the influence of those journal publishers based on six JCR indicators [2]. How large is the estimated market share of journal costs imposed by the publishers, as distinct from their influence measured by the six JCR indicators?…”