Open access publishing and soil science – Trends and developments

About 42,000 soil papers are annually published, and the number of papers almost doubled in the past 10 years. Most growth has come from China, and about one-third of all soil papers are presently from China compared to 4% in 1999. The increase in papers has been accompanied by higher impact factors of the core soil science journals. There has been a proliferation of new publishers and journals, and some 1500 new internet publishers have been established. Scientific publishing is big and profiteable business. Open access publishing started in the early 2000s. In the top four soil science journals only 1% of the papers were published open access in 2008, but currently 5 to 20% of the papers are open access papers. Across all scientific disciplines the share of open access papers is about 28%. Some preliminary analysis suggests that open access papers in soil science tend to be more cited. The current cost of an open access paper in one of the 25 top soil science journals ranges from $750 to $4000. Funding agencies, some universities and scientific organizations are pushing towards a total open access approach of scientific publishing. Soil scientists should become involved in these discussions as it affects the way we disseminate our findings.