Publication statistics 2016 to 2017

In the spring of 2018, the Saarland University and State Library (SULB) gathered data on publications in open access journals at Saarland University.

The survey was conducted by the SULB as part of the application process to join the DFG’s funding programme for Open Access Publishing.

The data collected for the years 2016 and 2017 is based on an analysis of the following databases: ACM Digital Library, adlr.link / FID für Medien-, Kommunikations- und Filmwissenschaften, Bibliographie des Musikschrifttums, EconLit, Education Resource Information Center (ERIC), FIS Bildung, MathScinet, PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO, PSYNDEX, Sport und Recherche im Fokus (SURF), Web of Science, WISO Sozialwissenschaften.

Information was also collected from the publication lists on departmental websites, as this information was not always available from database analyses.

Nevertheless, the numbers reported cannot claim to be complete, as even in subject areas where the available database is regarded as comprehensive and of high quality not all Saarland University publications were found to be included in the database.

The same applies to the analysis of websites, as it cannot be assumed that all of the publication lists are complete and up to date.

The data relating to 2017 is particularly susceptible to error. As the data was gathered in the spring of 2018, it is almost certain that not all of the publications from the previous year had been indexed in the databases at that time.

In 2016,

• researchers at Saarland University published 1555 articles in academic journals, of which 252 appeared in open access journals.
• Of these OA articles, 227 were published after payment of a publication charge.
• The total sum paid for these 227 articles was €445,940.80. The average fee was therefore €1964.50 per article (note: no claim is being made that these fees were always borne by a researcher at Saarland University).
• 75 of these articles would have met the DFG’s publication funding criteria set out above (article published in a peer-reviewed open access journal; lead author from Saarland University; maximum APC €2000 incl. VAT).
• These 75 articles incurred publication costs totalling €102,983.54, which averages to €1373.11 per article.

In 2017,

• researchers at Saarland University published 1380 articles in academic journals, of which 262 appeared in Open Access journals.
• Of these OA articles, 250 were published after payment of a publication charge.
• The total sum paid for these 262 articles was € 513,791.69. The average fee was therefore € 2055.17 per article (note: no claim is being made that these fees were always borne by a researcher at Saarland University).
• 61 of these articles would have met the DFG’s publication funding criteria set out above (article published in a peer-reviewed open access journal; lead author from Saarland University; maximum APC €2000 incl. VAT).
• These 61 articles incurred publication costs totalling € 86,667.63, which averages to € 1420.78 per article.

List of open access journals in which scientists and scholars from Saarland University published their research in 2016 and 2017 and that would have met the selection criteria used in the DFG’s publication funding programme.