Monetary Equivalent Value (MEV) of a Published Article in Psychology

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Bibliometrics
• Scholarly Communication

Background:

• Academic and research psychologists depend on publications for career progression.
• The monetary value of the extensive effort involved in publishing psychological research has not been previously quantified.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and explore the concept of a monetary equivalent value (MEV) for published psychology articles.
• To establish an initial framework for calculating the MEV of a research publication.

Main Methods:

• Developed a basic linear equation to calculate MEV.
• Incorporated median publication hours, mean psychologist hourly wage, and 5-year journal Impact Factor (IF).
• Calculated MEVs for journals published by the American Psychological Association (APA) with IF ratings.

Main Results:

• Calculated MEVs ranged from $4,562 for an article in "Dreaming" to $131,613 for an article in "Psychological Bulletin".
• Demonstrated wide variability in the monetary value of published psychology research.

Conclusions:

• The MEV offers a novel metric for assessing the impact and value of published articles in psychology.
• This exploratory study highlights the need for further research into quantifying the economic aspects of scholarly publishing, acknowledging limitations such as reliance on the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) Impact Factor.