Journal success factors: Manuscripts for the scientific journal "Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics" are discussed in the community first before they where finally published. Transparency, impact and identification with the journal raised and made within 8 years the most successful journal in its area.

1. Market Leadership by
Scientific Online Community
and Open Access
Andreas-M. Selignow
at London, Online Information
3rd October 2009

2. Market leadership?
• The journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP) has
become within 7 years after founding a market leader
1. In quality: impact factor
2. In growing rate 6
5
4
ACP
3
JGR
Atmos Envir
2
Table 1: impact factors 1
Source: JCR
0
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

3. Papers per year Table 2: Amount of
papers/year. Source:
JCR and AGU statistics
1000
900
800
700
600
ACP
500
Atmos Envir
400
300
JGR-Atmos
200
100
0
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

4. The story behind:
Fruits of the the serials crisis
• Impossibility of buying journals for many libraries
• Anger and outrage about high revenues of scientific
publishers among scientists and politicians
• Idea of Open Access, but no publisher willing to
implement it
• Problem: High costs, no way to refinance than grants like
the humanities.
• Solution: Publishing by internet, not only used for
distribution and upcoming web based peer review, but
also for production

5. Success from crisis
• 2001 the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP)
was founded as an Open Access Journal by EGS, now EGU
(European Geosciences Union www.egu.eu)
• 2009 it is one of the three leading journals in this area,
has about 600 papers per year
• ACP page production is growing about 25 % every year
and its impact factor reached 4.9
• The main competitors:
– AGU’s Journal of Geophysical Research / D: Atmospheric : about
1000 papers/year (growing ∼ 15 %), impact factor 3.1 (constant)
– Elsevier’s Atmospheric Environment. About 800 papers/yr
(stagnating), impact factor 2.9 (constant)

6. Success factors
1. the early adoption of open access: everybody can cite =>
maximizing impact factor
2. a most lean production: service charges < 50 % of ø
3. elaborated public peer review workflow /discussion journal
boosts quality
4. automated editor (and referee) choice for large publications
(> 60 editors)
5. integration of institutional sponsors for open access
publishing (MPG, CNRS INSU, DFG, VW, Univ. Göttingen)
6. early web 2.0 community building
7. sophisticated alert services
8. integrated meeting management system

7. Lean Publishing System
Online Submission
Registration Upload
Survey
technical Peer Review Public Discussion Chief-Editor o.k.
Production
Upload final version Typesetting Accounting
Publishing
Online and/or print Subscription via shop Archive

8. Publication costs
• Traditional paid journals: Nothing – except colored pages
etc.
• Springer Open Choice: 3000 $ (2000 €)
• de Gruyter: 1750 €
• ACP: ø 700–1000 €
• depending on length and MS preparation (70–150 € per page, up to
grade of adoption of stylesheet)
• Often sponsored
• See a list of most publishers on
http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/PaidOA.html

9. Elaborated “public” peer review
Traditional peer review
Peer
Submission Publication
Review
Public peer review
Access Public Final
Submission
Review Discussion Publication
Details on http://www.copernicussystems.net/en/peer-review-und-publishing/public-peer-review/

11. Public Peer Review
• After quick access review the article is publicly discussed
in a forum, also referee reviews are public
• Advantages:
– All “traditional” quality enhancements
– transparency via public documented decisions (“Discussion
journal”, all comments are paginated)
– less problems with plagiarism, intrigues and scientific fraud
– maximum quality of reviews
– low rejection rates (10-20% vs. 30-70%)
– Gaining influence on editor’s decision by comments is motivating
and provides empathy with the journal. The commentor’s affords
matter!

12. Automated editor choice
• Editors are in a (4-)dimensional grid
• E-Mail to all editors of subject area chosen by author
• Automatic reminders and widening of subject area
• Advantage: (nearly) no capacity management; editors feel
more respected because they are not assigned but asked

13. COSIS.net
• Communitiy of 40,000
active Geoscientists
• Now opened to all
sciences and humanities
• Services for
– networking
– peer review
– conference management
– management of
associations

14. COSIS.net: enterprise software for
scientific associations / eScience platform
user
Journals Meetings Association Communication
• Online Submission • Skeleton • Member • Social Networking
• Online XML Editor • Call for Programme Administration • Forums, Groups
• Public Peer Review • Call for Papers • Elections • Address books
• Production • Room Planning • PR • Search
• Publication • Registration • Website • Alert-Service
• Metadata-Push • indiv. Programme • Newsletter • RSS
• Accounting • Abstracts-CD • Statistics • Job Portal
• Realization • Awards
• Accounting
shop

15. Sophisticated alert services
• Daily email alerts only about fields of interest
• Advantages: consumable portions, “noise” reduction

16. Conference management as success
factor for journals
• Conferences produce proceedings, mostly as special
issues, i.e. more articles
• Financial contributes / cross-subsidization
• Conferences are widening contacts for fresh referees
(session programme => appropriate colleagues), over
10,000 participants per conference
• Constitute and strenghen network
• Updated profiles / addresses once a year

17. Conclusions
• Open access journals can reach or outrange traditional
“A-journals”.
• Lean production costs and better quality lead to success:
in quality and quantity – and in economics (> 500,000 $
turnover of one journal). Open Access is a prospering
business model.
• A web community supports the promotion of the papers,
provides new authors and reviewers, spends ideas for lean
workflows, and – most important – strengthens empathy
with the product.

18. More information
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_peer_review
• http://atmos-chem-phys.net (public relations)
• http://www.cosis.net (register for free)
• http://www.copernicussystems.net (COSIS.net system provider)
• http://www.egu.eu (publications)
• Ulrich Pöschl and Thomas Koop: Interactive open access publishing and
collaborative peer review for improved scientific communication and quality
assurance. Information Services & Use 28 (2008) 105–107, DOI 10.3233/
ISU-2008-0567, IOS Press (and many more by Ulrich Poeschl – initiator and chief
executive editor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics)
• Data basis for charts: Thomsonreuters’ Journal Citation Report 2002-2008 (JCP),
journal statistics from www.agu.org, and from www.atmos-chem-phys.net

19. Thanks for your attention!
Note: COSIS.net is available for all publishers, scientific
associations and institutions, professional conference
organizers
Further information on www.copernicussystems.net
Ask Andreas at marketing@copernicussystems.net