OpenEdition Freemium For Journals

Tabbed

Overview

OpenEdition is an academic publishing portal for electronic resources in the humanities and social sciences with four platforms presenting publications and current information:

OpenEdition Journals
OpenEdition Books
Calenda
Hypotheses

The OpenEdition publishing initiative focuses on providing open access content. They characterize the funding model as “hybrid”, where library subscriptions derive value added services in addition to directly funding publishing efforts.

Provider:

OpenEdition

Posted:

Jul 11, 2014 1:30pm

Updated:

Nov 13, 2021 12:05am

Source

CRL reviews are based on independent research. Information is researched by CRL staff and other specialists at CRL libraries. See CRL Review for additional source notes.

Collection Content

Subject Areas:

Arts and Humanities

Social Sciences

Resource Types:

Correspondence

Electronic books

Electronic journals

Major Languages:

French

- Denotes data sourced directly from publisher

Content Details:


Topics covered	Anthropology, economics, literature, philosophy, politics, religion, mass media, history
Geographic coverage	Worldwide
Chronological coverage	from 1921 up to now
Source format(s)	Electronic journals and e-books
Total titles	476 journals in total with 160 being freemium journals and 5,000 books (Jan. 2018)
Total pages	NA
Language (s)	For books: French (79%), Spanish (11%), English (7%), Italian (2%), German (1%). For Journals (many are bilingual): French (93%), English (28%), Spanish (10%), Portuguese (7%), Italian (4%), German (3%). As of January 2016
Digital collection launch date	1999
Completion date	NA
Collection ongoing	Y
Update frequency	Daily
Available supplements	NA
Languages notes	As of August 2014, books are 78% French, 10% English, and smaller percentages for Spanish, Italian, and German. Many fournals are indicated as bilingual, but French is reported for 94%, English for 24%, and smaller percentages in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and German.

Specifications

Metadata:


MARC records available	Y
Creator of MARC records	OpenEdition
Source for obtaining MARC records	From OpenEdition or from WorldCat
Fee for MARC records	N
Subject authorities used	yes, via WorldCat
Name authorities used	yes, via WorldCat

Technical Platform:


Browser compatibility	Compatible with recent versions of all common browsers
Authentication options	IP Authentification
Archiving solution (master files)	LOCKSS under active consideration
Archiving solution (derivative files)	NA
Available in web discovery tools	Y (Ebsco Discovery Service, Proquest Summon, OCLC Discovery, ExLibris Primo)
Open url target	N
Federated searching, z39.50	Y
Local host option	Y
Usage stats based on Counter code	Y

Interface Tools:


Full text displayed	Y (for 75% of the books)
Page images	Y
Color images	Y
Search full text	Y
Advanced search	Y
Search within results	Y
Limit results by dates and/or document types	Y
Display highlighted search terms	Y
Display snippet (search term in context)	Y
Relevance sorting	N
Save searches	N
Download PDF	Y
Download HTML	Y
Print page	Y
Print full document	Y
Export citations	Y (MLA, APA, soon Chicago Style Manual for the books. Compatible with Zotero, soon with Endnote)
Annotation tools	N
Cross-product searching	Y
ILL permitted	Y
Text/data mining permitted	Y
Restrictions on use	N

Terms and Provider Details

Terms:


Subscription option	Y (For journals and books)
Purchase option	Y (For books only)
Multiple year payments option	Y
Maintenance fees	Y (For the books only, cancelled with a single purchase per year)
Hosting charges	N

Provider:

OpenEdition

Website:

http://www.openedition.org/

Main Address:

OpenEdition (Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, EHESS, Université d'Avignon)

22 rue John Maynard Keynes - Bat. C

13013 Marseille

France

CRL Review

Collection Content:

OpenEdition is an academic publishing portal for electronic resources in the humanities and social sciences with four platforms presenting publications and current information:

OpenEdition Journals (academic journals, founded in 1999)
OpenEdition Books (founded in 2013)
Calenda (announcements of academic events, founded in 2000)
Hypotheses (platform and index for research blogs, founded in 2008)

The goals and potential scope of OpenEdition are quite broad. As of July, 2014, there were nearly 1500 book titles and 370 journals, with growth of the e-books planned to exceed 2300 titles by late 2014, and with a longer range goal of 16,000 titles by 2020. Content comes from over forty publishers. The wide range of subjects includes archaeology, anthropology, environmental studies, public administration, literature, and religion. The blog platform hosted over 700 research blogs in mid-2014. Blog topics ranged from Charlemagne to background on the current conflict in Syria.

While the language of the great majority of content is French (78% of books, 94% of journals), many of the journals are bilingual, and English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and German content is represented as well.

OpenEdition is a public non-profit initiative, a joint service and research unit (USR 2004) that brings together the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the université d'Aix-Marseille, the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and the Avignon Université. Libraries which subscribe to Freemium content (see below under Terms) become members of the “Library working group” of the OpenEdition users’ committee.

Update in 2018

In 2018, the total number of titles in OpenEdition are 476 journals (160 freemium journals) and 5,000 eBooks.

Update in 2019

As of 2019, there are 170 peer-reviewed freemium journals in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Delivery:

OpenEdition delivery tools are available if the patron is accessing content through a “Freemium” open access subscription package (see below under Terms for more information on the Freemium funding model). Freemium content provides libraries and researchers with:

Flexible downloading: unlimited, DRM-free download of PDF and ePub files for journal articles
Advanced search engines (no specific details available), and reportedly fast downloads
Notifications: new publications and blog posts are featured within the dedicated platforms; also a customized alert system is available for registered users which can deliver notifications of journal articles, books, calls for papers, and blog posts related to specified keyword or authors
Data services: APIs allow integrated display of notifications in local websites and workspaces; an OAI-PMH repository can render records and sets of metadata for content from all four platforms in several schema (including Dublin Core and METS)
Multiple device access: Bookserver is an open format tool allowing access to content on mobile phones and e-readers
Usage data: in addition to COUNTER statistics, OpenEdition provides monthly reports including referrer sites for accessed material, as well as visualized usage data

The main platform interfaces are available in French and English, while the blog platform (Hypotheses) also provides interfaces in German and Portugeuse (blog posts themselves are in various European languages).

Terms:

OpenEdition characterizes the Freemium library subscription investment as a hybrid model to sustainably support open access publishing (while providing some value added services). They indicate that the benefits will include finding an alternative to restricted access platforms, as well as keeping revenues directed toward actual costs. Two-thirds of income goes to the journals and publishers, while one-third is invested in OpenEdition’s platform development.

Acquisitions options vary: book titles can be selected individually or as a bundle; journal packages have tiered pricing which apply an interesting array of factors, including FTE of students in the disciplines of social sciences and humanities, the number of employees at an organization (e.g. research organization staff?), and Gross Domestic Product per Capita for the country of the subscribing institution.

Discerning how much of the platform content is open access can be somewhat confusing. In correspondence with CRL the OpenEdition distributor has indicated that for books, as of mid-2014, almost 80% of the nearly 1500 titles in the system were available in open access html format. OpenEdition requires that publishers of books provide at least 50% of their content as open access or open access freemium; up until now they have voluntarily put more content than requested in open access. Regarding journals, as of mid-2014 35% were available as full open access, 28% in open access freemium (html format only), and the remaining third had an embargo period. This proportion was expected to remain steady, although the distributors reported that they were working to reduce embargo periods.

Local hosting is supported: OpenEdition reports that "When books are purchased, the files belong to the libraries [and can be hosted] at the end of the year; for freemium journals, the libraries can also receive the files of the subscription year, and be locally hosted and provided to their authorized users."

Sources

Sources for this review include information publicly posted or obtained directly from the publisher; data collected by CRL staff and specialists at CRL libraries; and examination of the digital collection when possible. Other sources are noted where cited. CRL continues to gather additional information on this resource and to solicit critical assessment.

CRL Offers & Status

Status	Current	Description
CRL Flagged	no	Potential interest to CRL community
Offer Pending	no	Currently a candidate for CRL offer
Active Offer	no	Currently offered for purchase or new subscription
Trial Access	no	Available for trial
Renewal Offer	no	Currently offered for renewal
Expired Offer	yes	Past offers
Inactive / Declined	no	No longer under consideration by CRL
Reviewed by CRL	yes	Evaluation available by CRL and community
Special Access	no	Member-only access available for a limited time