There has been a growing importance of e-journals over the past 10 years or so, with a number of studies indicating that researchers welcome the enhanced and easy access. However relatively few studies have attempted to understand how e-journal usage affects researcher behaviour and how this impacts on research quality and productivity. http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/communicating-and-disseminating-research/e-journals-their-use-value-and-impact

1. E-Journals: usage, value, impact
and cost
FrenchForum
Online Information 2009
Branwen Hide
December 2nd, 2009

2. Outline
Introduction
How do researchers find the information resources
they need
The growing importance of e-journals
Implications of e-journal usage
Costs associated with publishing journal articles
Funding Mechanisms
Changes to the current publishing models –
implications for costs and funding
Summary

3. Simplified research life cycle
Development of Research Publication and
research idea Production distribution
(Access and usage)

4. How do researchers find the
information resources they need
Google/Google Scholar are the main sources used to
find relevant scholarly content
Limited use of library catalogues
Few researchers use search and navigation features
offered by publishers
Searching and downloading of journal articles frequently
takes place outside of standard office hours
Researchers at research intensive universities
tend to have shorter search sessions
have a preference for the use of gateways (such as
PubMed)
Read more highly rated journals (measured by ave.
impact factor)

5. Searching behaviour of researchers at research intensive
universities
Bangor 6.4%
Swansea 12.7%
Strathclyde 21.4%
Mean session length (sec)
Aberdeen 21.6%
CEH 17.0%
Rothamsted 15.2% Edinburgh 34.8%
Manchester 27.1%
Cambridge 35.0%
Research rating (Hirsch index)
Note: Deep log analysis of ScienceDirect

6. The growing importance of e-journals
96% of journal titles in STM*, and 87% of
journal titles in AHS** are available in
electronic format
2006/2007 UK HEI’s*** spend ~£80m
licensing electronic journals
2006/2007 estimated that UK researchers
and students downloaded 102m articles
*STM – Science, Technology and Medicine
**AHS – Arts Humanities and Social Science
***HEI – Higher Education Institute

7. E-journal usage by different size institutions in the same disciplines
Economics Life Sciences
Note: Not all institutions submitted all their research-active staff, so these charts provide only a rough
indication of relative size. Deep log analysis of ScienceDirect

8. Implications of e-journal usage
Those institutes with high page views also produce
more journal articles
Correlation between the levels of journal usage and
the level of library expenditure on electronic journals
There is a tentative relationship between e-journal
usage and research outcomes in terms of the
numbers of:
PhD students
number of academic papers
number of successful grant applications
research contracts awarded

9. So what does it all cost, and who pays?
Activities, costs and funding flows in scholarly
communications
Only looked at journals – excluded monographs and
unpublished data
Excluded secondary publishing and aggregation
Detailed article allocation function (i.e. per journal type)
Did not include R&D returns on research funding
Economic implications of alternative scholarly publishing
models: Exploring the costs and benefits
Included monographs
Activities include R&D funding process and research
performance
Note: The RIN and Houghton models are available for others to use and manipulate

10. Scholarly Communications life cycle
Research Publication Distribution Access Usage/
Production Consumption
• Libraries • Researchers
• Funders • ICT
• Institutions • Publishers and secondary publishers • Public
• Commercial • Government
• Researchers providers • Funders
• Publishers
•Web 2.0 tools
and software
•Google

11. Global Costs of Scholarly Communications
200.0
174.7
180.0
160.0
140.0
115.8
£ billions
120.0
100.0
80.0
60.0
33.9
40.0
16.4
20.0 6.4 2.1
0.0
Research Publishing & Access User search Reading total
production Distribution provision and print
cost
Research Publication & Access Usage & Consumption
Production distribution

12. UK Costs of Scholarly Communications
10.00
9.00 8.61
8.00
7.00 6.23
6.00
£ Billions
5.00
4.00
3.00
2.00 1.34
1.00 0.43 0.54
0.07
0.00
Research Publishing & Access User search Reading total
production Distribution provision and print cost
Research Publication & Access Usage & Consumption
Production distribution

13. UK Publication and Distribution Costs
450.0 424.9
400.0
350.0
300.0
£ Millions
250.0
200.0
150.0 125.1 119.0
100.0
63.7 63.0 54.1
50.0
0.0
Non-cash peer Direct fixed Variable cost Indirect cost Surplus Total cost
review cost
First copy cost £244.1
Publication Distribution

14. UK Access and Usage costs
1600.0
1400.0 1342.3
1200.0
1000.0
£ Million
800.0
600.0 542.2
400.0
200.0
71.9
0.0
Access provision User search and print cost Reading
Access Usage & Consumption
(library) (researcher)

15. How is the Scholarly Communications Process
funded?

16. Meeting the costs of scholarly communications globally
50.0
45.0
40.6
40.0
35.0
30.0
£ Billions
25.0
20.0
15.0
11.6
10.0
5.0
5.0
1.2 0.5
0.0
HE Libraries HEIs and their Non-HE Libraries, Funders/employers of other
funders special libraries and Non HEI researchers
Individual subscribers

17. UK contribution to the total cost of scholarly
communications
450.0
408.5
400.0
350.0
300.0
£ Millions
250.0
200.0
150.0 132.0
117.5
100.0
45.6 56.0
50.0 32.8
8.6 16.0
0.0
academic other (non- author pays academic other academic special Total
(non-cash) cash) peer subscriptions subscriptions library access access contribution
peer review review and revenues provision provision
funding funding

18. Changes to the current publishing models
Recent technical developments in
publishing, library services
Researchers are becoming more vocal
about their desire to have complete and
unhindered access to all research outputs
Changes in policy to encourage broad
dissemination and access to research
outputs
enables us to examine the affect of current
changes in the scholarly communications
landscape by developing scenarios of
possible changes, and model their impacts
both on costs and funding mechanisms

19. Changes to the current publishing
models: scenarios
90% of all journal articles are produced
and distributed only electronically
90% of all journal articles are funded via
author-side payment model (assumes all
articles are produced electronically)
Researchers are paid for peer-review
2.5% increase in research funding and
1.5% increase in article production over
10 years

20. E-only publication: Global costs
200
93
0 0
0
Research Publishing & Access provision User search and Reading Total cost
production Distribution print cost
-200
-400 -318
£ M illio n s
-600
-800 -758
-1,000
-983
-1,200
Research Publication & Access Usage & Consumption
Production distribution

21. E-only publication: Implications for the
UK
Publishing and distribution of UK-authored
articles
Publishers would save ~ £21m and one would
assume some of those savings passed on to UK
(and overseas) libraries and other subscribers
Costs for UK libraries in providing access to
global journals and articles
cost savings of ~ £23m
offset by small rise in user print costs
VAT increase ~ £5m

22. Summary: e-journal usage, value and impact
Google and other web based gateways are the
primary source of finding journal articles
Large majority of journal articles in all
disciplines are available digitally
Seems to be a correlation between specificity
of search, length of search, expenditure, usage
and research outcomes

23. Summary: cost and funding of journal
article production
Publishing, distributing and providing access to
scholarly publications are pivotal
but are not the only part of the scholarly
communications system
accounts for only 5% of the overall costs
Majority of the cost lies in the time taken to by readers
to search, download and read the articles
which are overwhelmingly met by the HE sector
and not greatly diminished by moving to e-only publications
There is scope for cash savings, and improvements in
efficiency and effectiveness across the entire system

24. Where do we go from here
Need for further understanding:
about universities’ expenditure and use of e-
journals, other information resources and the
relationship to research success
of the changes taking place and effects on
research practice, business models and
organizational culture;
the issues around moving to electronic-only
publication for all subject areas
the gaps that affect researchers access
information sources
the future of scholarly communications over the
next ten years.

25. Clearer picture of where major costs arise, and how
they are funded enables us to:
focus attention on key areas where cost efficiencies
are most likely to arise
analyse the balance of trade between different sectors
and different countries.

26. References
E-journals: their use, value and impact (April 2009)
http://www.rin.ac.uk/use-ejournals
Activities, costs and funding flows in scholarly
communications (May 2008)
http://www.rin.ac.uk/costs-funding-flows
Economic implications of alternative scholarly
publishing models: Exploring the costs and benefits
(JISC Jan 2009)
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/documents/economicpublishingmodelsfinalreport.aspx

27. Branwen Hide
Liaison and Partnership Officer
Research Information Network
Branwen.hide@rin.ac.uk
www.rin.ac.uk

28. Summary cost changes forsavings -UKto
CEPA: global scholarly communications cost the move
gold route
4000.0
3245.5
3000.0
2000.0
C o s t S a v in g s £ M illio n s
1000.0
0.1 -2912.6 -591.9 -8.2 -5.5 -272.6
0.0
Research Academic Other Author-side Advertising Membership Total cost
-1000.0 funders (peer subscriptions subscriptions payment fees &
review non individual
cash cost) subscriptions
-2000.0
-3000.0
-4000.0

29. Impact of the Gold Route on the UK
Costs:
Publishing and distribution of UK-authored articles
further cost savings to publishers of between £18m (CEPA) and
£93m (JISC)
assume some of those savings passed on UK (and overseas)
research authors and funders
Access costs for UK libraries in providing access to global
journals and articles
further cost savings of between £9m (CEPA) and £11m (JISC)
Funding:
Access costs for UK libraries of c £120m
offset by increases for HEIs and other research institutions of
between £213m (CEPA) and £172m (JISC) in publication fees
differentials between institutions
Transition costs*
*The RIN is currently working with JISC to develop a project examining the costs associated with
transitioning

30. Increases in research funding and article
production over 10 years
9
Current funding Difference between scenarios
8
1 .6
7
6
£ Billions
5
1 .0
4
6 .4
3
2 0.5 0.5
3 .7
0.5 0.3
1 1 .9 1 .8 0.2
1 .0 1 .0 0.8
0
Non-cash Direct fix ed First copy Variable cost Indirect cost Surplus Total cost
peer rev iew cost cost

31. Increases in research funding and article
production over 10 years con’t
9.0
Current Funding Difference between scenarios
8.0
1 .63
7 .0
6.0
5.0
£ Billions
4.0
0.82
6.4
3.0
0.53
2.0
3.4
1 .0 1 .9
0.1 7
0.7 0.05
0.03
0.1 0.2 0.03
0.1
0.0
Research Academ ic Other Author-side Adv ertising Mem bership Total cost
funders (peer subscriptions subscriptions pay m ent fees &
rev iew non indiv idual
cash cost) subscriptions