IWAP Annual Report 2022

Highlights from 2022

5.5m article downloads

Impact Factor 39%

1.1m

book downloads

66%

citations from Global South

The second year of S2O and Open Access for all

2022 was the second year of IWA Publishing’s Subscribe To Open (S2O) initiative, in which 10 journals became Open Access without fees for authors.

S2O is an extremely equitable model which removes barriers to reading and publication for people in all countries. We are very grateful to the many university libraries who support S2O, along with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for their help.

The effect of S2O on readership and citations has been transformational. Journal articles were downloaded 5.5m times in 2022, and citations more than doubled between 2020 and 2022. Two-thirds of those citations now come from countries in the Global South. With Open Access, IWA Publishing’s journals are being read and used in all countries.

Good progress has also been made with book publishing. 80% of the books published by IWA Publishing in 2022 were Open Access. For the first time, book readership exceeded one million downloads. One quarter of the books published were in languages other than English, with titles published in French, Portuguese and Farsi.

Looking to the future, IWA Publishing has released its new Strategic Plan for 2022-2026. You can read about our initiatives to provide improved services for authors and readers, increase diversity and representation, keep citation levels rising and serve IWA members even better in the next five years.

Rod Cookson, Managing Director

Readership by the whole world

Downloads increased strongly in 2022, with more than 5.5m journal article downloads and 1.1m book downloads.

Journal articles and books from IWA Publishing are now read everywhere around the world. This readership growth is coming from a wide range of countries. The list of Top 10 downloading countries for journal articles in 2022, for instance, includes major research nations such as the USA, China, India, the UK and Germany, but also emerging research producers such as Malaysia, the Philippines and Ethiopia (see Figure 2 below).

APC journals S20 journals

Figure 1: Annual growth in journal article downloads, 2018-2022

Figure 2: Top 10 downloading countries, 2019-2022

It is particularly pleasing to see that the Top 20 downloading countries cover all continents, and as many countries from Asia as from Europe and North America combined. Figure 3 below shows the full picture.

Figure 3: Global distribution of journal article downloads, 2022

Rapid increase in citations and Impact Factor

High download numbers have driven rapid increases in citations to IWA Publishing journals.

As a result, our median Impact Factor rose by an impressive 39% in the 2021 Journal Citation Reports, which were published in summer 2021. The typical Water Resources journal increased by a more modest 12%.

The positive effect of S2O on citation levels has been very clear. Citations to the 10 S2O journals were 115% higher in 2022 than in 2020, the last year before S2O was introduced. They also come from a wider distribution of countries. In 2020, just over half of the citations to the S2O journals came from the Global South. In 2022, this proportion had risen to 66% (see Figure 4 below). IWA Publishing journals are being read and cited more everywhere. The increase is especially large in countries in the Global South.

Figure 4: Citations to S2O journals in the year before S2O and the first year of S2O

Author satisfaction is increasing fast

Through our Author Survey, we are delighted to see how our initiatives to improve peer review and publication turnaround times have been noticed and appreciated by our journal authors, with author satisfaction in peer review, copy editing and typesetting speeds all increasing.

An increasing number of authors are choosing IWA Publishing journals due to our Open Access policies as well. In 2022 there was a 77% increase in authors naming Open Access as one of their main drivers in submitting their paper to our journals.

Our Net Promoter Score has grown year on year since 2019, and now stands at 77: a strong endorsement from our authors, who overwhelmingly agree that they would recommend IWA Publishing journals to their colleagues.

“I am a big fan of open access journals. I love everything in this journal.”

Mohanad Khodier, Yarmouk University, Jordan, Water Supply author

“I have learned/gained a lot of experience during peer review or publication of my article. I would like to thank you for your contribution to the world community/scholars or researchers, especially for those who can't access non-open access journals.”

Sultan Abdulkadir Aliye, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, India, Water Supply author

“The utmost support of peer review by the staff of the journal is highly appreciated. The free access facility encouraged me further.”

W. D. M. Wijenayaka, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, Journal of Water and Climate Change author

Figure 5: Net Promoter Score increase, 2018-2022

A new era for Water Research X

Water Research X emerges from the umbrella of its partner journal, Water Research, as a highranking option for fast publication of quality water research.

Water Research X (WRX) has announced its first Impact Factor of 9.365. Now ranked fourth most impactful journal in the Water Resources category of the Journal Citation Reports, this is a great achievement for the young journal. Initiated as the Gold Open Access partner to Water Research (WR), WRX is now diversifying to become a completely independent journal that publishes high quality and ground-breaking water research, with competitive timesto-publication. WRX continues to have the same scope as Water Research, welcoming contributions on all aspects of the science and technology of the anthropogenic water cycle, water quality, and its management worldwide. Elsevier - who publish Water Research and Water Research X - have been hugely supportive in driving the transformation of WRX forward.

Zhiguo Yuan, Editor-in-Chief, adds: “As Editor-in-Chief, I warmly welcome your contributions on all aspects of the science and technology of the anthropogenic water cycle, water quality, and its management worldwide. As an Open Access journal, WRX will instantly bring your work to the attention of all water professionals in the world.“

WRX is aiming for average article handling time of just over a month and pre-review decisions within one week. It also provides new formats for authors to publish concise but complete and novel papers. Its narrative-based ‘Leading Edge' papers are distinct and allow innovations to be published in a timely and succinct manner. WRX will also feature insightful perspectives and editorials along with critical mini-reviews on the latest developments in emerging or fast-evolving topics.

Water Research X has changed its paper structures, please find details in Guide for Authors.

We look forward to welcoming your article submissions!

Editor-in-Chief,

Zhiguo Yuan,

Water Research X

Delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals

Our journals continue to add to the literature on the Sustainable Development Goals.

According to Scopus data, out of the nearly 2,000 articles published in IWA Publishing journals in 2022, 507 were related to SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation for All), and 240 were related to SDG 13 (Climate Action). These publications, all Open Access, extend our considerable library of SDG-related publications, invaluable resources for the water community and beyond.

We have also begun the process of moving towards gender equality in our journals, in line with SDG 5 (Gender Equality). A recent study of 1,100 journals found that only 14% of journal Editors were women. For IWA Publishing in 2022 that figure was 20%: a number that we are very keen to increase rapidly in the coming years.

Meeting in person again in Copenhagen!

2022 saw the very welcome return of in-person meetings.

We were delighted to attend the IWA World Water Congress and Exhibition, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, and connect with familiar and new faces from our Editorial Boards and authorship. We held eight book launches with the authors of the books, including Biological Wastewater Treatment: 2nd edition; Resource Recovery from Water: Principles and Application and Quantification and Modelling of Fugitive Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Urban Water Systems.

We also presented a Festschrift to Professor Gustaf Olsson, Celebrating passion for Water, Science and Technology, in honour of his considerable contributions to IWA Publishing journals. Professor Chong-Yu Xu, Editor Emeritus of Hydrology Research, was presented with the IWA Publishing Award, in recognition of his exceptional work improving the journal’s impact and reach.

As part of our efforts to understand and address barriers to publishing in our journals, we held a Focus Group with early career researchers from all over the world. The conversation was wideranging and informative, and will help us take forward our initiatives to improve accessibility and representation in our journals.