Publishing trends of journals and articles in Journal Citation Reports during the COVID-19 pandemic: a descriptive study

Purpose This study aimed to investigate the changes that occurred in journal and article publishing during the noncontact period that started in 2020 due to COVID-19. Methods The integrated journal list in Journal Citation Reports (JCR) 2017–2021 and the search results of Web of Science were analyze...

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Main Authors: Sang-Jun Kim, Kay Sook Park
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Korean Council of Science Editors 2023-02-01
Series:Science Editing
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.escienceediting.org/upload/kcse-300.pdf
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author Sang-Jun Kim
Kay Sook Park
author_facet Sang-Jun Kim
Kay Sook Park
author_sort Sang-Jun Kim
collection DOAJ
description Purpose This study aimed to investigate the changes that occurred in journal and article publishing during the noncontact period that started in 2020 due to COVID-19. Methods The integrated journal list in Journal Citation Reports (JCR) 2017–2021 and the search results of Web of Science were analyzed using pivot tables in Microsoft Excel. The articles, citations, impact factor (IF), publishers, open access (OA) status, and compound annual growth rate (CAGR) were investigated using the data. Results The CAGRs of articles, citations, and IFs in JCR journals increased throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the increase in OA articles was accompanied by a decreasing share of subscription articles. The top 20 journals in JCR-SCIE (Science Citation Index Expanded), based on the number of articles, accepted OA policies and showed a strong influence, accounting for 7% to 9% of all articles. MDPI and Frontiers were OA publishers included among the top 10 publishers. Large publishers maintained their competitiveness through mergers and acquisitions with OA publishers. Due to the rapid distribution of OA and early access articles as part of the international response to overcome COVID-19, the CAGRs of citations and IFs increased more than that of articles, and the publication and use of journal articles have become more active. Conclusion The publication and use trends in JCR journals analyzed herein will provide useful information for researchers’ selection of journals for article submission, analyses of research performance, and libraries’ journal subscription contracts.
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spelling doaj.art-c7141c656b5b4b18a7a2066ab5959b6a2023-03-06T01:50:26ZengKorean Council of Science EditorsScience Editing2288-80632288-74742023-02-01101788610.6087/kcse.300306Publishing trends of journals and articles in Journal Citation Reports during the COVID-19 pandemic: a descriptive studySang-Jun Kim0Kay Sook Park1 Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Daejeon, Korea Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, Daejeon, KoreaPurpose This study aimed to investigate the changes that occurred in journal and article publishing during the noncontact period that started in 2020 due to COVID-19. Methods The integrated journal list in Journal Citation Reports (JCR) 2017–2021 and the search results of Web of Science were analyzed using pivot tables in Microsoft Excel. The articles, citations, impact factor (IF), publishers, open access (OA) status, and compound annual growth rate (CAGR) were investigated using the data. Results The CAGRs of articles, citations, and IFs in JCR journals increased throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the increase in OA articles was accompanied by a decreasing share of subscription articles. The top 20 journals in JCR-SCIE (Science Citation Index Expanded), based on the number of articles, accepted OA policies and showed a strong influence, accounting for 7% to 9% of all articles. MDPI and Frontiers were OA publishers included among the top 10 publishers. Large publishers maintained their competitiveness through mergers and acquisitions with OA publishers. Due to the rapid distribution of OA and early access articles as part of the international response to overcome COVID-19, the CAGRs of citations and IFs increased more than that of articles, and the publication and use of journal articles have become more active. Conclusion The publication and use trends in JCR journals analyzed herein will provide useful information for researchers’ selection of journals for article submission, analyses of research performance, and libraries’ journal subscription contracts.http://www.escienceediting.org/upload/kcse-300.pdfarticlecovid-19journal impact factoropen access publishingperiodicals as topic
spellingShingle Sang-Jun Kim
Kay Sook Park
Publishing trends of journals and articles in Journal Citation Reports during the COVID-19 pandemic: a descriptive study
Science Editing
article
covid-19
journal impact factor
open access publishing
periodicals as topic
title Publishing trends of journals and articles in Journal Citation Reports during the COVID-19 pandemic: a descriptive study
title_full Publishing trends of journals and articles in Journal Citation Reports during the COVID-19 pandemic: a descriptive study
title_fullStr Publishing trends of journals and articles in Journal Citation Reports during the COVID-19 pandemic: a descriptive study
title_full_unstemmed Publishing trends of journals and articles in Journal Citation Reports during the COVID-19 pandemic: a descriptive study
title_short Publishing trends of journals and articles in Journal Citation Reports during the COVID-19 pandemic: a descriptive study
title_sort publishing trends of journals and articles in journal citation reports during the covid 19 pandemic a descriptive study
topic article
covid-19
journal impact factor
open access publishing
periodicals as topic
url http://www.escienceediting.org/upload/kcse-300.pdf
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