Mega -Journals" into Content Ecosystems: The Robustness of This - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The Linking of Flagships, Sister Journals and OA “Mega-Journals" into Content Ecosystems: The Robustness of This Evolving Publishing Structure NFAIS October 2018

James Phimister, PhD

• 15 years in executive strategy,

marketing and M&A roles at Elsevier, ProQuest, National Academies

• McKinsey alum
• Postdoc Wharton, PhD Penn
• Started in 2015
• “We help science, medical, and

information companies grow.”

• Specializing in strategy, market

research, M&A, Open Access strategy

Dori Gardner

• 10 years in market research,

data analytics, customer surveys, strategy and engagement roles at Elsevier

• Masters, Organizational

Psychology, NYU

PHIPerspectives.com clientservices@PHIperspectives.com

• What is a linked content

ecosystem (aka a cascade)?

• Cascades in practice
• Cascades and open access
• How cascades may respond to

cOAlition S

Topics for today

What is is a cascading content ec ecosystem?

• A “cascade” allows for the

transfer of rejected manuscripts from one title to another.

• Often cascades are built

within a publisher’s portfolio.

• Sometimes they are highly

structured, other times they are less formal.

Submissions

Premier journal

Traditio ional l publi lishin ing man anuscrip ipt flo flow

• f the ‘premier journal.’

Cascading publisher system fl flow

Premier journal

The Cascade Submissions

• accepted. A large percentage of

Premier journal

The benefits – For th the auth thor

The Cascade

• Saves authors energy of

reformatting and resubmitting

• Faster publication through

transfer of review

• Option to “aim high”
• Maybe easier to manage

Open Access requirements?

Premier journal

The benefits – For th the publisher (t (there are many)

• Expands proposition to

authors

• Keeps desired manuscripts

within portfolio [doesn’t lose them to competitors]

• Lifts impact factors of lower-

tiered journals

• Reinforces brand
• Feeds OA journals and

megajournals

• Increases revenues

The Cascade

The downsides … are oft ften experienced by smaller publishers

• Rejected manuscripts are staying within

a publisher’s portfolio reducing submissions to smaller publishers

• Pool of remaining inflow to smaller

publishers may be of lesser quality, reducing publication impact factors and diminishing a smaller publisher’s brand.

• Smaller publishers may not have the

submission volume to build a cascade system.

“I’ve heard from smaller society publishers that they are suffering from declining submissions from titles located

• upstream. Rejections from Lancet, JAMA, and Cell are

flowing down their own journal cascades.”

• Phil Davis, The Scholarly Kitchen

We belie lieve the im impact of cascades are profound, , if if unseen

• 1. Cascades have resulted in a consolidation of papers around

key, high profile brands (e.g. Nature, Science, etc.).

• 2. Cascades have fueled the growth of Open Access: Est. ~

25%-40% of OA publishing revenues are in titles that are part of cascades.

• 3. Cascades create significant challenges for smaller

publishers who do not possess leading brand titles.

How are cascades ty typically str tructured?

Tier 2 Tier 1 Tier 3 Positioning Model

• Highly curated
• High reject rate
• Positioned as the

flagship that

• thers extend off
• Typically subscription,
• ften with archive open
• May (reluctantly) take

APCs

• High editorial input
• Focused on domain
• Rejection rate 50%-

90%

• Positioned and

named as ‘sister’ titles

• Mix of models
• Sold in packages
• Limited editorial

input/copyediting etc.

• APC driven
• Highly automated
• Multidisciplinary
• Reject rate 40%-80%

AAAS has built out a three-tier cascade, le led by the fl flagship Science tit itle

nature Research Journals

Nature has buil ilt out tie iered jo journal branding and la launched two successful megajournals

The La Lancet has built a th three-tier str tructure wit ith it its lo lowest ti tier done in in partnership wit ith Cell Press (w (who also have a th three ti tier structure)

Joint venture with Cell Press

PLOS has a two tie ier stru ructure wit ith the PLOS brand ext xtending across all ll tit itles

Cascades and Open Access: Open Access works at t th the bottom of f th the cascade – it it tends not to at t th the top

Model Primarily subscription Mix of Models Open Access (APC) Manuscript flow down the cascade can drive revenue growth Though this revenue growth can be less attractive than the top of the pyramid

• It has lower margin
• There are perverse

incentives – accept more, streamline more, cut on quality

Cascade systems drive growth of Megajournals

Description:

• Journals have very large scope
• Online only - not inhibited by page numbers or articles per issue
• Publication not restricted to “novel” or “moving the science forward” research
• Peer review is often different – focusing on scientific method, not findings

Business model:

• APCs: APCs with fees ranging from $400-$5,300. Typically CC-BY or CC-BY-NC (or

some custom variant). Quality and impact:

• Acceptance rates: Acceptance rates are often lower for megajournals, typically 40-70%
• A few megajournals (Nature Communications, Science Advances) have lower acceptance

rates – e.g. in the 20%-30%.

Megajournals are fed by cascade systems

Megajournals articles published

• Megajournals, including Nature

Communications, PLoS One, Scientific Reports benefit from a cascade system

• Since PLoS ONE launched in

2006, megajournals have become a significant presence and a large revenue generator, with estimated more than $100M in 2017

• New entrants include JAMA

Network Open, Science Advances and ACS Omega

How cascades have responded to Open Access

• generally th

they are resilient

• Often either in

compliance or waivers are granted

• Generally in

compliance (e.g. with author archiving) or

• ptions exist.
• Almost always in

compliance (devil can be in the license)

How might th the model respond to cOAlition S?

• For many, it

it will be a challenge

Premier journal

journal Hybrid journal Mega journal OA journal Challenges

• Bottom tier may be

unaffected, benefit, or have some negative impact. cOAlition S

• Cascades generally

don’t work as fully OA – though PLoS is a notable exception.



• Many titles will have

to fold or migrate. Investments in new subscription titles will wither.

 

• What are cascading

ecosystems

• Cascades in practice
• Cascades and Open Access
• How cascades may respond

to cOAlition S

So what have we covered?

THANK YOU