Category Archives: oa.hungary

Understanding theIncreasing Market Share of the Academic Publisher “Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute” in the Publication Output of Central and Eastern European Countries: A Case Study of Hungary

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As the open access movement has gained widespread popularity in the scientific community, academic publishers have gradually adapted to the new environment. The pioneer open access journals have turned themselves into megajournals, and the subscription-based publishers have established open access branches and have turned subscription-based journals into hybrid ones. Maybe the most dramatic outcome of the open access boom is the market entry of such fast-growing open access publishers as Frontiers and Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI). By 2021, in terms of the number of papers published, MDPI has become one of the largest academic publishers worldwide. However, the publisher’s market shares across countries and regions show an uneven pattern. Whereas in such scientific powers as the United States and China, MDPI has remained a relatively small-scale player, it has gained a high market share in Europe, particularly in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. In 2021, 28 percent of the SCI/SSCI papers authored/co-authored by researchers from CEE countries were published in MDPI journals, a share that was as high as the combined share of papers published by Elsevier and Springer Nature, the two largest academic publishers in the world. This paper seeks to find an explanation for the extensively growing share of MDPI in the publication outputs of CEE countries by choosing Hungary as a case study. To do this, by employing data analysis, some unique features of MDPI will be revealed. Then, we will present the results of a questionnaire survey conducted among Hungary-based researchers regarding MDPI and the factors that motivated them to publish in MDPI journals. Our results show that researchers generally consider MDPI journals’ sufficiently prestigious, emphasizing the importance of the inclusion of MDPI journals in Scopus and Web of Science databases and their high ranks and impacts. However, most researchers posit that the quick turnaround time that MDPI journals offer is the top driver of publishing in such journals.

Publication of clinical trials on medicinal products: follow-up on trials authorized in Hungary | Trials | Full Text

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Abstract:  Background

Clinical research should provide reliable evidence to clinicians, health policy makers, and researchers. The reliability of evidence will be assured once study planning, conducting, and reporting of results are transparent. The present research investigates publication rates, time until publication, and characteristics of clinical trials on medicinal products associated with timely publication of results, measures of scientific impact, authorship, and open access publication.

Methods

Clinical trials authorized in Hungary in 2012 were followed until publication and/or June 2020. Corresponding scientific publications were searched via clinical trial registries, PubMed (MEDLINE), and Google.

Results

Overall, 330 clinical trials were authorized in 2012 of which 232 trials were completed for more than 1?year in June 2020. The proportion of industry initiation was high (97%).

Time to publication was 21 (22) months [median (IQR)]. Time to publication was significantly shorter when trials involved both European and non-European countries (26 vs 69?months [median]; hazard ratio = 0.38, 95% CI 0.22–0.66, p<?0.001), and were registered in both EU CTR and clinicaltrials.gov (27 vs 88?months; hazard ratio = 0.24, 95% CI 0.11–0.54; p<?0.001) based on survival analyses.

A significant amount (24.1%) of unpublished clinical trial results were accessible in a trial register. The majority of available publications were published “open access” (70.93%). A minority of identified publications had a Hungarian author (21.5%).

Conclusions

We encourage academic researchers to plan, register and conduct trials on medicinal products. Registries should be considered as an important source of information of clinical trial results. Publications with domestic co-authors contribute to the research output of a country. Measurable domestic scientific impact of trials on medicinal products needs further improvement.

Opening the Future: A New Model for Open Access Books

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“CEU Press is going Open Access.

CEU Press welcomes members as we aim to convert to a fully OA monograph frontlist. In return, you will receive access to some of the most popular titles from CEUP’s extensive backlist. By purchasing access to the backlist, you can fund CEU Press’s future to be open access….”

Roll Out of First Open Access Books Fully Funded by Opening the Future | Central European University

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“Central European University Press (CEU Press), in partnership with the Community-led Open Publication Infrastructures for Monographs (COPIM), and in collaboration with early supporters of the Opening the Future library membership programme, has reached the threshold needed to begin funding its first titles in open access.

The Opening the Future platform is a CEU Press and COPIM initiative, launched earlier this year to facilitate transitioning the entire monograph program of CEU Press into open access together with its partners Project MUSE, LYRASIS and Jisc. Within the model, which is a first of its kind, CEU Press provides access to portions of their highly-regarded backlist, to which members subscribe. The revenue from these subscriptions is allocated entirely to allow the frontlist to be OA from the date of publication….”

Opening the Future: A New Model for Open Access Books

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“Established in 1993 to reflect the intellectual strengths and values of its parent institution, CEU Press is a leading publisher in the history of communism and transitions to democracy. It is widely recognised as the foremost English-language university press dedicated to research on Central and Eastern Europe and the former communist countries. It publishes approximately 25 new titles a year and has a large backlist of over 450 titles with e-books already available through several platforms.

Sustainable funding for OA monographs

Building on library journal membership models such as Open Library of the Humanities and ‘Subscribe to Open’, CEU Press is creating a sustainable OA publishing model that will give members access to a selection of the extensive backlist, DRM free and with perpetual access after a subscription period of three years. This membership revenue will be used to make newly-published books openly accessible to anyone.

When the revenue target is met and the entire monograph frontlist is openly accessible, future membership fee rates can be lowered. The model has support from LYRASIS who will assist with organizing library participation in the programme and has support from OAPEN. Project MUSE will host the books, providing MARC records, KBART files and supporting discovery systems, and subscribers will have access to COUNTER compliant statistics. Membership is open to libraries and institutions worldwide. There are no catches and no hidden fees – members won’t be asked to pay more on top of their annual fee to access ‘more’ or ‘better’ titles. Packages won’t suddenly change….”

Opening the Future: A New Model for Open Access Books

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“Established in 1993 to reflect the intellectual strengths and values of its parent institution, CEU Press is a leading publisher in the history of communism and transitions to democracy. It is widely recognised as the foremost English-language university press dedicated to research on Central and Eastern Europe and the former communist countries. It publishes approximately 25 new titles a year and has a large backlist of over 450 titles with e-books already available through several platforms.

Sustainable funding for OA monographs

Building on library journal membership models such as Open Library of the Humanities and ‘Subscribe to Open’, CEU Press is creating a sustainable OA publishing model that will give members access to a selection of the extensive backlist, DRM free and with perpetual access after a subscription period of three years. This membership revenue will be used to make newly-published books openly accessible to anyone.

When the revenue target is met and the entire monograph frontlist is openly accessible, future membership fee rates can be lowered. The model has support from LYRASIS who will assist with organizing library participation in the programme and has support from OAPEN. Project MUSE will host the books, providing MARC records, KBART files and supporting discovery systems, and subscribers will have access to COUNTER compliant statistics. Membership is open to libraries and institutions worldwide. There are no catches and no hidden fees – members won’t be asked to pay more on top of their annual fee to access ‘more’ or ‘better’ titles. Packages won’t suddenly change….”

Elsevier Progresses in Open-Access Deal Making | The Scientist Magazine®

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“Last summer, dozens of academic institutions in Sweden let their Elsevier subscriptions lapse, forgoing permission to read new content in the scholarly publisher’s journals. Like other groups in Europe and the US, they were pushing for increased open access and contained costs—and had reached a deadlock in negotiations with the publisher. On Friday (November 22), the two sides announced that they had finally come to an agreement, establishing a so-called transformative deal that includes access to paywalled articles and open-accessing publishing into one fee….”

[Quoting] Wilhelm Widmark, the library director at Stockholm University and a member of the steering committee for the Bibsam consortium, which negotiates on behalf of more than 80 Swedish institutions. “I think Elsevier has become more flexible during the last couple of months.”

Just a day before the Swedish deal was made public, Elsevier and Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania announced a similar deal. These are the latest of several agreements Elsevier has forged to pilot open-access elements since the beginning of 2019. Earlier this year, for example, Hungary and Norway—both countries that had cancelled their subscriptions with the publisher after stagnant negotiations—also announced new contracts with the publisher….

As Elsevier is successfully forging deals on both sides of the Atlantic, there are still two major academic groups missing from these announcements: the University of California (UC) system, which includes 10 campuses, and Project DEAL, which represents around 700 academic institutions in Germany….”

Hungary and Elsevier agree pilot national license for research access and Open Access publishing

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“Hungarian Electronic Information Service National Programme (EISZ) and Elsevier, a global information analytics business specializing in science and health, today agreed a new pilot license for research access and Open Access publishing in Hungary.

The three-year agreement means researchers affiliated to EISZ consortium member institutions across Hungary have access to 16 million publications from over 2,500 journals published by Elsevier and its society partners on ScienceDirect, Elsevier’s leading platform of peer-reviewed scholarly literature. The agreement also facilitates a cost-neutral transition to Open Access and enables Hungarian researchers from EISZ affiliated institutions to publish their research Open Access without researchers having to pay an APC. More information on the Open Access Pilot can be found here….”

Elsevier signs pilot agreement to serve Hungary | Research Information

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“Hungarian Electronic Information Service National Programme (EISZ) and Elsevier have signed a Memorandum of Understanding and Letter of Intent, as they move towards finalising a new innovative pilot agreement for research access and Open Access publishing in Hungary. As a result, EISZ consortium member institutions and their affiliated researchers across Hungary now have immediate access to ScienceDirect, as well as SciVal and Scopus.

Researchers affiliated to EISZ consortium member institutions are able to access 16 million publications from more than 2,500 journals published by Elsevier and its society partners via ScienceDirect. Access to Scopus and SciVal will support Hungarian research in benchmarking performance against more than 10,700 research institutions and their associated researchers from across the world….”

Access to ScienceDirect, Scopus and SciVal open for the Hungarian research community, as EISZ and Elsevier work towards an Open Access pilot agreement

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“Hungarian Electronic Information Service National Programme (EISZ) and Elsevier, a global information analytics business specializing in science and health, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding and Letter of Intent, as they move towards finalizing a new innovative pilot agreement for research access and Open Access publishing in Hungary. As a result, EISZ consortium member institutions and their affiliated researchers across Hungary now have immediate access to ScienceDirect, Elsevier’s leading platform of peer-reviewed scholarly literature, as well as SciVal, the research performance tool, and Scopus….”

As Elsevier Falters, Wiley Succeeds in Open-Access Deal Making | The Scientist Magazine®

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“Over the last few years, Project DEAL, a consortium that represents around 700 academic institutions in Germany, has been in negotiations for nationwide licensing agreements with three of the largest scholarly publishers—Elsevier, Springer Nature, and Wiley. Most of the news surrounding the effort has focused on disputes with Elsevier, which have led to lapses in subscriptions and lost access to the publisher’s journals. But the tune changed in January when DEAL announced its first triumph: a deal with Wiley.

Under the new agreement, which lasts for three years and commences in July, researchers at DEAL-represented institutions will be able to both publish open-access articles and read any papers in the publisher’s journals for a single fee. The final sum will depend on the total number of articles published by German researchers, which, according to the contract, is expected to amount to 9,500 papers per year and cost €26,125,000 (around $29.5 million USD) annually….”