Why Electronic Open Access Matters. Analysis of Publications on Energy Topics

The paper analyzes the possible reasons why the growth of the number of publications in the journal Energies for 2011-2020 is more than 10 times higher than the number of publications in Applied Energy or Energy with the best citation rates and published by one of the oldest publishers - Elsevier.

It is shown that the significant growth in the number of publications of Energies can be explained by the following features of the journal. The journal with open access to all full-text articles is published only in electronic format, while only 4.6% of publications of the journal Energy and 12.1% of publications of the journal Applied Energy are open access, these journals have printed versions. The journal Energies admits articles of large length, such as 66 pages per publication. Its publication fees are substantially less than those of journals of a similar subject but with print versions, ~$2224 for Energies, $3400 for Energy, and $3400 for Applied Energy, respectively. The rate of publication of articles is several times faster than that of Elsevier journals. The first decision is made in about 16.5 days from the time the article is submitted; acceptance for publication is in 3.5 days. The journal has developed a large community of reviewers and affiliated institutions who are rewarded for their work with reduced fees for journal publications. The journal is less dominated by authors from China and the United States, making it more attractive to authors from other countries. The Lens platform classifies all articles in Energies as belonging to the General Computer Science Subject, which is especially important for finding optimal solutions to various energy problems, while the Energy and Applied Energy journals categorize their publications into more traditional Subjects: General Energy; Pollution; Building and Construction; Civil and Structural Engineering.