28 June 2024
cOAlition S has released its latest report on the Transformative Journal (TJ) model, a key strategy developed to transition subscription-based publishers to full and immediate Open Access (OA). The 2023 data, sourced from participating publishers, sheds light on the progress and obstacles encountered in this endeavour.
The TJ programme mandates that journals annually increase their OA research content by at least 5% in absolute terms and 15% in relative terms, to fully transition to OA when 75% of their research content is published openly.
The 2023 data reveals the following insights from 996 titles:
• Full OA Transition: 39 titles (4%) successfully flipped to full OA.
• Growth Targets Met: 403 titles (40%) met or exceeded their OA growth targets.
• Growth Targets Missed: 552 titles (56%) did not meet their OA growth targets and would have been removed from the programme if it continued.
• New Publications: 2 titles (<1%) started publishing in 2023 and did not have a 2023 target.
Notably, 57 journals from Cambridge University Press are set to flip to OA in 2025, and Springer Nature indicates 14 titles may follow suit, though specific titles are not yet disclosed. The American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and IEEE, however, did not provide their TJ reports, resulting in their titles being classified as not meeting OA targets.
Among the 20 publishers in the programme:
• Successful Transition: The Company of Biologists, EMBO Press, Geological Society of London, and the Royal Society achieved 100% compliance with OA growth targets across their portfolios.
• Cambridge University Press: Of its 224 titles, 33 (15%) transitioned to full OA, and 162 (72%) met OA growth targets. Only 13% (29 titles) missed the targets.
• Other Notable Performers: Canadian Science Publishing, Royal Society of Chemistry, and Karger met or exceeded OA growth targets in 77%, 75%, and 74% of their titles, respectively.
• Challenges: BMJ failed to meet OA growth targets for any of its 30 journals. Springer Nature saw a significant reduction, from 1,721 TJ titles in 2022 to 117 in 2023, with 91% failing to meet growth targets over the past two years.
This mixed performance indicates varying success in transitioning to OA, with learned societies and university press publishers generally more successful than their commercial counterparts.
The report also provides a longitudinal analysis:
• 2020: 14 publishers with 2,240 journals (baseline data).
• 2021: 16 publishers, 2,304 journals; 13 titles flipped to OA, 44% met growth targets.
• 2022: 16 publishers, 2,326 journals; 26 titles flipped to OA, 30% met growth targets.
• 2023: 20 publishers, 988 journals; 39 titles flipped to OA, 40% met growth targets.
• Despite 78 journals successfully transitioning to OA, only one in five titles retained TJ status after two years, highlighting the challenge in sustaining OA momentum.
Publishers reported that OA articles are generally downloaded more frequently than paywalled ones. For instance, Elsevier noted that OA articles in TJs were downloaded 3.3 times more than subscription articles. However, citation data showed mixed results, with some publishers like the Royal Society seeing higher citations for OA articles, while others like the Royal Society of Chemistry saw no difference.
As cOAlition S phases out support for the TJ programme by the end of 2024, this report underscores the varied success among publishers in transitioning to OA. The coalition will now focus on innovative, community-led OA initiatives to ensure a swift and equitable transition to open access.