Elsevier B.V. Radarweg 29 Amsterdam 1043 NX Netherlands Phone: +31 20 485 3911 elsevier.com October 9, 2018 Re: Journal of Informetrics Editorial Board meeting response Dear members of the Journal of Informetrics Editorial Team and Board, In recent discussions we have been made aware of a number of ongoing concerns raised by the Editorial Board. We welcomed the opportunity to discuss these issues with the Editorin-Chief and hereby summarize the discussions and initial proposals we can make to help address these. The key issues requested to be addressed were as follows: 1. Elsevier’s position on open citations, 2. the open access options in the Journal of Informetrics, and 3. the issue of ownership of the journal. 1. Elsevier’s position on open citations As an enabler of open science, Elsevier supports the sharing of content and data in multiple ways. Through both ScienceDirect and Scopus, Elsevier adopts a flexible and balanced approach to the data it makes available. For example, Elsevier provide options to enable unrestricted free access to some of the data it publishes and curates, including bibliographic metadata related to all articles it publishes, and basic metadata for citation records in Scopus. We understand the Board would like Elsevier to make journal article reference lists freely available. While these are made available to those who wish to license this data, Elsevier cannot make such a large corpus of data, which it has added significant value to, available for free. Though researchers submit article references, these are received in numerous different formats and, more importantly, in natural language – as authors don’t tend to reference DOIs. Elsevier therefore invests significantly in citation extraction technology, which calculates the most likely intended paper being referenced by an author, across 40,000 journal titles. This software disambiguates natural language as written by researchers in their references and matches it to the correct article and journal. The process of disambiguation and transformation is essential to creating citable references, and to ensuring article references interlink to other papers. Elsevier needs to be able to continue investing in ways that add value to the research process, which it cannot do if it gives this value away for free. The Scopus API provides access for bibliometric scientific research. Institutional subscribers are granted access in most cases, and non-subscribers who do not have access to the data can also submit requests for individual evaluation. To ensure that this facility is as visible as possible, and easy to request, we propose to raise the profile of this on the journal’s homepage and also include details in a free-to-access Editorial and/or Publisher’s note, as appropriate, within the journal. We welcome ideas and suggestions on how else this facility could be better shared with the research community. We remain open to discussing use cases that the Board feels are not currently being served through the data Elsevier makes open and the channels through which the data is made available. Elsevier’s approach is guided by its commitment to supporting research and to ensuring it can continue to invest to add value to the research process. We are always open to considering additional steps we can take to achieve these goals. 2. Open Access Elsevier supports open access and recognizes the increasing importance of open access to the scientific community. The Journal of Informetrics is a hybrid title, meaning that those who wish to publish their work as gold open access can do so by paying the Article Publishing Charge (APC). We feel that the current APC is set at an appropriate rate and is well benchmarked within the field, with the APC for the Journal of Informetrics actually lower than that of its main competitor and about average overall in the field, while offering above average content quality. Elsevier continues to invest in workflows and tools that support authors and institutions to publish OA. This includes being able to identify authors so that they are presented with tailored publishing options, and dashboards for institutions to keep track of publications and spend. Additionally, as the Journal of Informetrics is also included in the Research 4 Life HINARI initiative, authors from participating countries can apply for APC subsidies upon acceptance for publication. Researchers globally have different preferences in how they choose to publish. Some prefer to publish for free, making their articles available to subscribers and through green open access; while others prefer to pay an APC and broadcast their article immediately, freely available. Our objective is to provide high quality publication options across the board. As the Journal of Informetrics operates under a hybrid model, it provides choice for authors under both models. All authors remain able to make their articles available gold or green open access when publishing in the Journal of Informetrics. The stable subscription and open access article volumes within the journal do not suggest immediate changes are needed to the journal’s publishing model. That said, Elsevier is continuing to experiment with new ways of boosting gold open access, and we propose that JOI becomes a catalyst for the growth in open access in the field. The idea is to create a fully gold open access version of the Journal of Informetrics, with the same Board, same aims and scope, and the same scientific rigor, but only gold open access. To help grow the journal in its nascent stages, we would further offer APC waivers for the Editor-in-Chief to use at his discretion. Provided we can come to an agreement on launching the related title in the very short term, we are able to expedite the process for a 2018 launch. 3. Ownership The Journal of Informetrics’ history at Elsevier is a success story of collaboration between your scientific community and our organization. Founding Editor Leo Egghe’s final Editorial (read it here) reflects on the process of creating the journal and the collaborative spirit that set the stage for its launch. Ownership of this title is not negotiable, but if in any way our two parties have drifted apart, we are committed to work on restoring trust and continuing to support the advancement of the field through the journal. We greatly value the input and active discussion with the Editorial Board in collaborating on the journal. We all share the same goal – to make the best journal possible for the community. We know from experience that the only way to achieve this is by having a strong, collaborative partnership and we look forward to working together with you all to grow and develop this over the coming years. Thank you for your attention. We welcome your questions and comments.