cOAlition S, the global initiative aiming to accelerate the transition to Open Access publishing, has announced that it will discontinue the Journal Comparison Service (JCS), effective from April 30, 2025. The JCS was launched in September 2022 as part of cOAlition S’s commitment to ensuring that Open Access fees are transparent and reflective of the services provided by publishers.
The Journal Comparison Service was designed to provide a platform for libraries, funders, and other stakeholders in the Open Access ecosystem to compare the pricing and services of various journals. By offering clear, data-driven insights into publishing costs, the tool aimed to help libraries and consortia make more informed decisions in their Open Access negotiations with publishers. The service was developed following extensive consultations with librarians, publishers, legal experts, and software developers.
Despite initial enthusiasm, the JCS has faced challenges in gaining widespread adoption. At launch, 27 publishers had agreed to provide data on the fees and services associated with their Open Access journals, covering over 2,000 journals. However, over the past three years, the number of participating publishers has increased to 37, but the total number of journals represented has declined significantly to just 549. This limited journal coverage, combined with a low level of engagement from end users, led to disappointing usage metrics. In 2024, the JCS had only 105 registered users, who accessed the service a total of 163 times during the year.
Given these low usage figures and the significant costs associated with maintaining the platform, cOAlition S has made the decision to phase out the JCS. The service will officially cease operations on April 30, 2025.
As part of the closure, cOAlition S has made the code developed for the JCS available to the public. The code will be accessible for reuse at https://github.com/CottageLabs/journalcomparisonservice, allowing others to repurpose the technology for future initiatives.
While the discontinuation of the JCS marks the end of this particular project, cOAlition S remains committed to advancing transparency and fairness in Open Access publishing. Future efforts will focus on exploring new ways to support the global Open Access transition, ensuring that research is freely accessible and that associated costs are transparent for all stakeholders.
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