Point of view

Open access - open science

The situation with the publication of translated scientific journals and the details of relations with foreign publishers have become one of the most pressing topics in the Russian scientific community recently. The topic is widely discussed in the Russian Academy of Sciences and beyond, the scientific community looks for ways to meet this issue.

One of the options is the publication of an open access journal, free for readers and authors that would take on the function of distributing English-language versions and at the same time provide an opportunity for those interested in learning about the research of scientists. Government agencies and international scientific organizations with publishing experience, financial, human and other resources to ensure the effective functioning of the publication, for example the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, have the potential to publish such scientific journals.

Under the control of a foreign publisher

Since the early 1990s, with few exceptions, the American company Pleiades Publishing has been publishing and distributing English-language versions of scientific journals from Eastern European countries, including Russian ones (certain journals are published by Turpion Ltd., Elsevier, Springer New York).

At one time, the founders of the publications entered into licensing agreements with the company to transfer to it for temporary use the English-language titles of translated journals. For decades now, the publishing house and its subsidiaries have been, as they call it, "building bridges" between scientists from different countries. With the help of Springer, to which Pleiades Publishing has transferred the distribution function, English-language versions of Russian journals are provided with what is called visibility in the West - the Russian science in the global information scientific space. Currently, the Russian Library of Science package contains more than 130 of the best Russian scientific publications, most of them academic. All of them are indexed by foreign databases Web of Science (USA) and Scopus (Netherlands) that makes them attractive to authors and facilitates distribution.

But if a few years ago, everyone was happy with cooperation: the editors-in-chief of Russian publications were spared the "headache" of distributing English-language versions in the global scientific community and the foreign publisher received a good income from subscriptions to these publications but today, the situation has changed. And we can say that the publication of English-language versions of Russian magazines experiences a serious crisis: Pleiades Publishing changed the terms of cooperation unilaterally, removing from the covers of translated magazines all attributes indicating origin from Russian-language originals in 2017. In 2020, the company filed applications with the US Patent Office to secure the right to own and use the English-language names of Russian journals it publishes and already in 2021, all databases reflected this, considering that these journals belong to the United States, American universities and institutes.

"Russian scientific journals, primarily academic journals, have essentially lost their English-language versions," JINR Scientific Leader, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Victor MATVEEV notes. "And whatever regrets we experienced, it was predictable and natural. Since the beginning of the 1990s, when the paradigm of the social structure changed so much, society has started to realize the new place of the Russian Academy of Sciences in science in general and in the Russian Federation, in particular. The approaches to the reorganization of the Russian Academy of Sciences were very different: some suggested reforming it in a Western manner, where the Academy of Sciences is a club of very authoritative scientists and not a department with its own institutes, programmes, budget, others noted that in this case, our science would be undermined.

Further discussions were carried out, yet government support for science fell. And the following task appeared at the RAS: if it suddenly turns out that the state cannot provide the necessary support for scientific publications, considering them an attribute of the old organization of life, it is necessary to find someone who will compensate for the costs of publishing and distributing English-language versions. Offers immediately arose on a commercial basis, including from the Pleiades Publishing group of companies. Having invested its capabilities and funds in this activity and received in return a very good promising business, this company gradually began to play the role of a manager. As a result, business began to influence editorial activity."

In 2022, sanctions exposed the problem: Pleiades Publishing announced that it could not cooperate with Russian government agencies, but could cooperate with editors-in-chief and authors. At the same time, the company rewrote the form of the author order agreement that is signed annually by the editor-in-chief and that determines his cooperation with Pleiades Publishing. According to the new document, Pleiades Publishing issues an English-language magazine, different from the Russian-language basic version, but based on articles translated into English.

Not all Russian magazine founders accepted the tougher terms of cooperation and for a year and a half, there was resistance from Russia. Thus, a number of large institutes began to independently publish their journals: the V.A.Steklov Mathematical Institute, the A.F.Ioffe Institute of Physics and Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Institute of General Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The result of this resistance was the cessation of funds from the publisher to Russian magazines: royalties and payments under the author's order agreement.

All publications translated and published by Pleiades Publishing began to experience difficulties. Two journals of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research - the scientific review journal "Physics of Elementary Particles and Atomic Nuclei" and Letters to the Journal "Physics of Elementary Particles and Atomic Nuclei" (Particles and Nuclei, Letters) were no exception. For many years, cooperation with Pleiades Publishing has been fruitful and convenient for them, but in recent years, the publishing house has been creating unbearable conditions, the editors admit.

"Pleiades Publishing, for example, dictates terms to us regarding the number of publications," editor-in-chief of Particles and Nuclei, Letters Alexey ISAEV says. "The fact is that some journals have stopped working with Pleiades Publishing, but the order from Springer for a certain number of publications has remained. As a result, we, like other editors, have to send to Pleiades Publishing, along with high-quality, well-researched publications, conference materials that are presented by the publisher as original articles. And they are not entirely original, because, for obvious reasons, there are overlaps with already published articles. Then no one refers to these articles and the publication's rating drops. In addition, there is a problem with long publication times that sometimes reach six months. Finished articles may lie on the table, waiting to be published and losing their relevance. And only it already creates some ground for conflict."

According to Alexey Isaev, the magazine's editors, like many other editors, are still forced to adapt to the foreign publisher that in fact, gives ratings to publications. But many editors-in-chief agree with each other on one thing: the problem is ripe and the end of this cooperation already looms ahead if Pleiades Publishing does not change its policy. Therefore, today is the time to look for worthy alternatives.

The trend towards openness

It is worth noting that the need for change concerns primarily the global transformation that the market of translated scientific journals currently experiences: the main trend in scientific communication of our time has become the so-called open access (Open Access, OA), when scientific publications are available on the Internet free of charge to everyone. Open access is ideally suited to the spirit of science: all the achievements of scientists, unencumbered by commercial restrictions and achievements of significance for the military-industrial complex should be publicly available. OA is also beneficial from a practical point of view, as it increases the availability of scientific results for all interested people, increases the efficiency of both science itself and its impact on the economy and society.

However, the publishing business in science is traditionally commercial: most companies, including the aforementioned Springer, use a subscription model when distributing journals, despite the fact that there have been seemingly no obstacles to OA for decades due to the development of technology. It's simple: it's more profitable for a foreign publisher. In this case, the following situation arises: articles supported by funding are legally available only to universities and research institutes that have found the money for a subscription and for the overwhelming number of scientists they can be closed.

That is why in recent years, movements for OA have developed and become stronger, such as Plan S and others that quite rightly voiced that paid access to publications prevents access for a significant part of the scientific community and society as a whole to some research results, violates equal access to the publication of theirs and familiarization with already published results that is an absolute anomaly that hinders the development of science. Initially, Plan S focused on full-fledged Gold OA journals, when the publisher immediately posts an article accepted for publication in its final version in the public domain on its website and money is taken from the authors of the publications (or their funding organizations) (Article Processing Charges, APC). But as practice has shown, the market was unable to quickly reorient itself and after negotiations with publishers, it was decided to give a reprieve for the so-called hybrid journals, in which some publications are open to everyone and some are traditionally available only to subscribers.

However, despite the efforts of such initiative groups, in many countries, a significant proportion of prestigious journals are still distributed by subscription and the various hybrid models invented to ease the transition of publishers from traditional models to OA have resulted in the financial burden being transferred from readers to authors (or organizations funding authors). Publishers have even increased their income by charging authors for articles.

One of such associations that pays for the publication of scientific articles in OA is the international consortium SCOAP³. The organization has set itself a noble goal: to transfer the most significant articles on particle physics and nuclear physics into the public domain.

The SCOAP³ collaboration was established in 2014 under the auspices of CERN and today, centrally funds OA for papers in 11 leading journals in high energy physics and related fields. The initiative covers an average of 7000 papers per year that is about 60% of papers in the field of high energy and nuclear physics. Currently, this initiative involves 3000 libraries, funding agencies and research organizations from 45 countries and 3 international organizations: CERN, IAEA and JINR. The amount of contribution of each participant is commensurate with its share in the world scientific product in the field of high energy physics.

"The consortium collects funds (from 2 to 5 thousand euros per article, depending on the journal) directly from the organizations participating in the consortium, each of which, as a rule, represents one country. The size of the contribution is determined by the share of the country's publications in the total number. JINR represents all Member States of the Institute in the consortium. The consortium then makes payments to publishers based on the number of articles published in the public domain. It allows authors to publish open access papers on high energy physics without any direct costs or additional burden for authors in key journals such as Physical Review, Physical Review Letters, Physics Letters, Chinese Physics C, European Physical Journal and several others," Deputy Chief Scientific Secretary of the Institute, JINR representative in the SCOAP³ consortium Alexey ZHEMCHUGOV says. And he notes that JINR scientists publish quite extensively in them. According to calculations based on Scopus data, the total number of JINR publications for the period 2016-2022 in these journals (9 out of 11) amounted to about 30% of all JINR publications.

But OA coverage for journals published at the Institute itself and of other translated Russian-language journals, due to the SCOAP3 initiative, is unlikely.

From scientists - for scientists

It is obvious that the situation with English-language versions of Russian magazines needs to be radically changed. The scientific community widely discusses options for meeting the issue. Thus, there is a possibility and it has already been announced by the Russian Ministry of Education and Science, of the revival of the famous Russian publishing house "Nauka" - a lot of preliminary work is already underway in this area with a number of universities and scientific organizations. The Ministry noted that this is right both from the point of view of historical retrospect and from the point of view of ensuring scientific sovereignty.

There are alternatives - no less promising. Thus, a proposal arose at JINR to launch its own electronic peer-reviewed journal with open access, free for readers and authors. This issue is extensively discussed in institute circles among scientists. An initiative group has been formed to develop the project and concept of the new publication.

"The mission of the new journal is: "from scientists - for scientists," a researcher at the Sector of Investigations of Fundamental Properties of Neutrons at the Department of Nuclear Physics of FLNP, a member of the initiative group Alexander Nezvanov emphasized. "This is an edition open for publication and reading, in which there is no unnecessary intermediary - a publishing house that is more interested not so much in the dissemination of scientific knowledge, but in the commercial success of the journal. Such a magazine should be absolutely free for readers and authors."

Victor MATVEEV, Alexey ISAEV, Alexey ZHEMCHUGOV, Alexander Nezvanov

He noted that this approach can successfully unite the advantages of various solutions for open and free publications: openness and prompt publication on the arXiv.org preprint platform and a number of similar services (ResearchGate, Academia.edu); shifting the burden of article publication costs from authors (in the case of Gold OA journals) and readers (traditional subscription model) to a third party, implemented through the SCOAP³ initiative that however, does not provide access to all published articles in the field of high energy physics. An open access journal can be an excellent alternative to various pirated resources that provide free access to the full text of scientific articles.

Open access is a global trend at present. But it is not profitable for most large publishers to change their current approach to scientific journals. As members of the initiative group note, the publisher of such a journal could be a large international scientific organization, for example, JINR. Such a solution could be based on a new paradigm: scientific organizations and society as a whole that invest in basic research in the interests of all humanity, should equally invest in the publication and dissemination of their results. The founding Member States of JINR should provide for the allocation of the appropriate funds required for these goals in annual budgetary allocations.

Discussing the possibility of publishing such a journal at the Institute, scientists outlined a number of important points that should be taken into account. "We need to do several things as well as possible at the same time," JINR Chief Scientific Secretary Sergey NEDELKO highlighted. "To collect interesting articles by famous authors of scientific publications in the first issues, to invite scientists with a high reputation to the editorial board, to ensure a high scientific level of articles and much more - all this requires the consolidation of the efforts of many people, the entire Institute. Good scientific journals play a system-forming role as a natural tool for the development of new research areas; scientific schools are established around them, a system of expertise is developed and a high-quality scientific environment as a whole. In other words, a good scientific journal is a value that is not measured by the impact factor alone (a numerical indicator of citations - author's note)."

According to the concept of the new open access journal, the scope of publications will be determined by the topics of fundamental and applied scientific research at JINR and will relate to various fields of science and if necessary, will be at the intersection of two or more disciplines. There will be articles on theoretical physics, elementary particle physics, relativistic nuclear physics, atomic nuclear physics, neutron physics, condensed matter physics, low temperature physics and cryogenic technology, physics and accelerator technology and others. The language of scientific articles is English and there will be an opportunity to publish a version of the article in the national language of the Institute's Member State. Articles will be published online immediately after subscription for publication and a completely prepared issue of the journal will be published twice a year.

"The full ownership of the journal by the Institute will ensure complete freedom in its authority and the electronic format will provide the required flexibility for this," Deputy Head of the Department of Elementary Particle Physics of DLNP JINR, a member of the initiative group Lyudmila KOLUPAEVA notes. "There is no external requirement from the publisher to fill out the issue, so only high-quality articles are published. If several such articles are received in a six-month period, then the issue will consist of several articles. If there are several dozen of them, then the issue will consist of several dozen articles. Any sections that are currently relevant for the global scientific agenda and the scientific programme of JINR can be quickly added to the structure of the journal."

The advantages of a publication based on an electronic platform will allow it to coexist with the journals already available at the Institute without any competition, as members of the initiative group believe. The publication will open up new opportunities for those authors that wish to publish their papers quickly, within a few weeks, while publications will be possible in those scientific topics that are not represented in journals already functioning at JINR.

"It is important to create something new as opposed to standard scientific journals, only then will the publication created be a success," Head of the Hadron Structure Sector of the Department of the Theory of Fundamental Interactions of BLTP, executive secretary of the editorial board of the journal "Physics of Elementary Particles and the Atomic Nucleus" Andrey ARBUZOV says. "It is believed that the main product of scientists is an article. But today, it is an article and tomorrow, it will be a computer programme, "hyperobjects". We should create a journal that aims to publish not only text, but hyperlinks, animation and scientific databases. There should be no restrictions on the number of pages and additional materials."

When organizing a journal, scientists believe, it is necessary to rely on the experience of other successful open access electronic publications. "As an example, two serious electronic journals are the "Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics" and the "Journal of High Energy Physics," Director of the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics of JINR Dmitry KAZAKOV says. "They were born as a challenge to the global trend of transition from paper to electronic publications and have been working very successfully for decades. It is interesting that the latter, for example, became popular thanks to the fact that CERN obliged scientists from its collaborations to write in these journals. Maybe we should go this route."

Sergey NEDELKO, Lyudmila KOLUPAEVA, Andrey ARBUZOV, Dmitry KAZAKOV

Despite the financial costs of creating and functioning such a scientific journal for JINR, there is an intangible benefit from this activity. By creating such a journal, the Institute can become one of the leaders in the global trend towards openness of scientific knowledge in JINR's core areas of science. The publication can become a successful reputational project that will not only help to strengthen the image of JINR in the world, but also will promote JINR to the centre of uniting the scientific community of scientists both from JINR Member States and potential partners of the Institute in the future.

Ksenia MORUNOVA