Research article output in fully OA journals fell by 16% in the first half of this year, compared with the first six months of 2023. By contrast, hybrid OA grew by 2.7%. Subscription content was broadly constant. But that's only part of the story. (1/n)

Elsevier and Springer Nature have bucked the trend and are doing particularly well. Elsevier published 14% more research articles in H1 2024 compared with H1 2023. Springer Nature grew by 18%. The Empire Strikes Back. (3/n)

Some may think annual reports are dull, but I don't. Last week Springer Nature released its annual report, which provided details on their operations and profitability. You can read all about it here: ck.journalology.com/posts/jo…

So Springer Nature, which has a significant financial incentive to publish more papers, has a high rejection rate. We focus a lot on corporate profit margins. Perhaps we should focus just as much on the quality of the product we get as tax payers for funding academic research.

I’ve been thinking about @eLife's announcement over the weekend, in particular the business model. tl;dr the new model will increase revenues by 150% and costs by 33%. (caveat: back-of-the-envelope calculation) A 🧵

I suspect that a $3000 APC is unlikely to cover the costs of a journal with a 16% acceptance rate, which perhaps explains why the cost for the new model is $2000 not (say) $1000.