Comparison of Article Processing Fees on Open Access Journals with a 4.5-Year History of Publishing

Summary / Introduction

Open access article (synonym: open access publication) is a type of peer-reviewed article which gives a possibility to the readers to read and download it free of charge owing to paying an open access publication fee (OAPF) directly by its authors, their institutions, or funders. According to Solomon and Björk’s study, who analyzed about 1,370 journals, article processing charges range from 8 to 3,900 US Dollars. Moreover, the official Elsevier’s page dedicated to the list of all company’s open access journals indicated that an article processing charge can reach 6,000 US Dollars excluding tax. First publishing houses that supported and develop open access journals have been two new academic publishers — BioMed Central (BMC) and Public Library of Science (PLoS). In 2000, they began establishing journals that rely on open access publication fee.

Most motivation criteria for the authors from the fields of oral and maxillofacial surgery, periodontics in choosing to what peer-reviewed journal submit their paper may be classified under three chief groups: 1) indexing and abstracting in different recognized data bases (PubMed/Medline, Scopus, Web of Science, etc.), 2) an impact metric, and 3) an amount of the article processing charge. This is the aim of this study in order to understand the advantages and disadvantages the payment methods. For the purpose of comparative analysis we selected two peer-reviewed journals according to the following inclusion criteria:

1. Fully open access publication (hybrid or delayed open access journals were excluded during selection).
2. Similar term of publication history — about 5 years (similar starting point allows comparing the peer-reviewed journals more precisely).
3. Journals focused on oral surgery.
4. Different ways of receiving article processing charges after the submission of manuscripts.
5. English, as language of publications.

Materials & Methods

Two journals were selected, the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Cases and International Journal of Implant Dentistry. For analysis, we have compared: 1) presentation forms of the journals: print and electronic, 2) media platforms of the publishers, 3) editorial boards, 4) portfolio of the articles, 5) publication frequency, systematization on issues and volumes, 6) comparison of abstracting and indexing of the journals, and 7) article processing charges. We performed analysis using open data from websites of the journals and the publishers.

Journals’ Presentation

Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Cases is an English-language online-only open access journal focused on publishing case reports and case series in the field of oral and maxillofacial surgery. The journal’s first issue was published by Elsevier company in March 2015. During 4.5 years of journal’s growth the total amount of published articles reached 97 peer-reviewed publications (Table 1). The strongest year was 2018 when totally 31 articles were published in the journal under guidance of 17 members of editorial board (Table 2). The OAPF for the authors is 500 US dollars — $160 less than the average per-article charge for open-access publishers in 2011 when it was $660. The journal is covered from 2015 by Elsevier’s Scopus database (Fig 1). According to the SCImago Journal Rank of 2018 (Table 3), the journal is thirty-fifth place among 47 journals in the category ‘oral surgery’, and seventy-eight place among 109 journals in the category ‘otorhinolaryngology’. The journal’s CiteScore in 2018 was 0.41, SNIP 0.719, and SJR 0.208. All issues are included in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). At ScienceDirect webpage, the term ‘articles in press’ (Table 4) means the accepted, peer-reviewed papers that are not yet assigned to issues/volumes, but are citable using DOI.

International Journal of Implant Dentistry was launched in December 2015 by the collaborative efforts of German Association of Dental Implantology (DGI) and the Japanese Society of Oral Implantology (JSOI) on the SpringerOpen platform of the Springer Nature company. It’s an online-only (Table 5) peer-reviewed journal focused on implantology. Editors in chief, Hendrik Terheyden and Yoshinobu Maeda, stated that totally more than 20,000 persons are the members of both societies. The preconditions that guided the editors before the launch of the new peer-reviewed journal were: 1) implant dentistry as a growing field, 2) quick publishing, 3) open access structure of all articles, 4) rapid spread of information, and 5) publishing fees are granted by the association and society (Table 6). The most robust year in development was 2017 when 50 articles have been published (Table 1). After inclusion in DOAJ, covered by PubMed (Fig 2), the journal increased its attractiveness for authors (Table 3). Three main editorial board’s differences comparing Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Cases with International Journal of Implant Dentistry are 1) two editors in chief (Table 2), 2) two-times more members, and 3) members are from eighteen countries.

FIGURE 1. Cropped screenshot information about Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Cases open access Scopus Preview.

FIGURE 2. Cropped screenshot information from catalog page of International Journal of Implant Dentistry at National Library of Medicine (NLM) website.

Discussion

Better understanding of every step of the journals’ growth is possible by analyzing journals’ results in including to the different citation and abstract databases. Analyzing the example of International Journal of Implant Dentistry we can assume that when the journal offers no publication fee it attracts more authors. Second hypothesis: abstracting in PubMed/MEDLINE plays a crucial role for authors in choosing the “right” journal for submission. We can say the same, taking into account the 2.5-year editorial office experience in Journal of Diagnostics and Treatment of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology for a question about covering by PubMed being the top question among authors from Australia, Brazil, and India prior to submission. In that case, existence of as high OAPF as US$500 cannot stop authors from submission a manuscript to Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Cases.

As impact factor is still the common requirement in most European medical institutions it also plays a significant role in the decision of authors to what journal to submit the paper. Nevertheless, in our study we did not find any information whether both journals have an impact factor.

In conclusion: both journals are online only, English-language open access publications, related with an ‘oral surgery’ field, and with an internationally diverse portfolio of papers. Both are included to the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). Their four main differences are: 1) the presence of an association/society that is holding the publication as the official journal of the community, 2) journal’s inclusion to the different abstracting databases, 3) article processing charge models, and 4) editorial board list. Taking into account the tendencies in the rapidly changing market of open access journals, further investigations in the field of open access publications and its’ attractiveness for authors are strongly recommended.

About the Authors

Daniel Robles Cantero, DDS, MSc, Clinical Director of Miguel de Cervantes European University, Madrid, Spain. Todd R. Schoenbaum, DDS, FACD, Associate Clinical Professor, UCLA, CA, USA. Zinaida Y. Zhehulovych, ScD, Professor, Department of Dentistry, Bogomolets National Medical University, Kyiv, Ukraine. Ivan V. Nagorniak, Oral Surgeon, PhD, Private Dental Practice, Kyiv, Ukraine. Ievgen I. Fesenko, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, Private Higher Educational Establishment “Kyiv Medical University”.

Role of the authors: Daniel Robles Cantero (editing). Todd R. Schoenbaum (reviewing and editing). Zinaida Y. Zhehulovych (editing). Ivan V. Nagorniak (concept and design of the paper and material collection). Ievgen I. Fesenko (concept and design of the paper and writing).

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