A Marimekko chart uses stacked column charts of variable widths to represent and display categorical data graphically. In this chart type, both cartesian axes feature variables with percentages. The percentage scale of each segment determines their height and width.

The Marimekko chart shown in Figure 1 shows current market contribution across the selected citation topics compared with our competitors and so shows areas of opportunity for Springer Nature.The width of the bars in the chart is proportional to the 2023 market volume of articles while the height of the bars is proportional to the market share of each publisher. Springer Nature is encoded using Dark Blue and competitor publishers are each encoded using a constant single colour throughout all visualisations presented for consistency and harmoinsation. For instance on the citation topic Chemical and Thermal Processes in Energy and Combustion, which we will focus on as an example throughout the HIVE post, the chart shows this is the topic we have the lowest market share of from the 11, with Elsevier and MDPI publishing most in this space.

This is a Small Multiple chart. Small Multiple charts deconstruct more complex multi-line charts that are sometimes difficult to easily and correctly intepret, into smaller comparable ‘thumbnail' style charts.

Charts should be initially compared with those on the same horizontal horizon. Y-axes for all charts on the same horizon extend over the same numeric range, allowing easy comparison between individual scientific publishers, within the individual citation topics.

Indivudal publishers read on vertical columns. Selected citation topics read on the horizontal horizons. Dark Blue lines on each chart represents Springer Nature. The other coloured line represents the compared-with publisher.

The 'small-multiples' line chart below displaya publication volume growth change over the years 2010-2023. It highlights how the number of publications has changed over time, in this case for the citation topic 'Chemical and Thermal Processes in Energy and Combustion'. While the topic has shown significant growth in the overall market, this trend is not reflected in Springer Nature's performance (as shown in dark blue). The full small multiples visualisation from which this chart comes can be seen in the lower illustration as Figure 2.

This is a Small Multiple chart. Small Multiple charts deconstruct more complex multi-line charts that are sometimes difficult to easily and correctly intepret, into smaller comparable ‘thumbnail' style charts.

Charts should be initially compared with those on the same horizontal horizon. Y-axes for all charts on the same horizon extend over the same numeric range, allowing easy comparison between individual scientific publishers, within the individual citation topics.

Indivudal publishers read on vertical columns. Selected citation topics read on the horizontal horizons. Dark Blue lines on each chart represents Springer Nature. The other coloured line represents the compared-with publisher.

The 'small-multiples' line chart below displaya publication volume growth change over the years 2010-2023. It highlights how the number of publications has changed over time, in this case for the citation topic 'Chemical and Thermal Processes in Energy and Combustion'. While the topic has shown significant growth in the overall market, this trend is not reflected in Springer Nature's performance (as shown in dark blue). The full small multiples visualisation from which this chart comes can be seen in the lower illustration as Figure 2.

The bar chart (Figure 4) displays the growth percentage in 2023 compared to 2022, showing that for Springer Nature growth is negative at -0.7% whereas for Elsevier growth is 12.3%.

This is a Small Multiple-style chart. Small Multiple charts deconstruct more complex multi-category charts that are sometimes difficult to easily intepret, into smaller comparable ‘thumbnail’ style charts. Individual charts here share common x-axes. Each chart is sorted in descending order on the percentage change in publication volume between 2022 and 2023 (latest two years for which data is available). Publishers are consistently-coloured across all charts to ease encoding and comparison of their data values and their position within the ranking. This allows us to easily understand variability across the selected citations topics.

As we look at the charts in Figures 5 and 6, in 2023, Springer Nature lags in this topic area, with 575 articles and publication volumes substantially below the annual mean (shown in light gray) of 951 articles. Elsevier published a substantial 3,880 articles, dominating the market and highlighting the gap in market share in this topic.”

This is a scaled-symbols visualisation. Each circle is scaled to the number of publications published by the selected publishers across the considered citastion topics.

The size of each circle is scaled with respect to the maximum value for any single publisher-citation topic combination (Elsevier, with 16,764 publications in Electrochemical Energy Storage and Conversion) The colour of each scaled circle is encoded to the publisher it represents.

As we look at the charts in both Figures 5 and 6, in 2023, Springer Nature lags in this topic area, with 575 articles and publication volumes substantially below the annual mean (shown in light gray) of 951 articles. Elsevier published a substantial 3,880 articles, dominating the market and highlighting the gap in market share in this topic.”