42nd Annual ConferenceLIBER München 2013 Open Access – perspectives in the humanities Dr. Hildegard Schäffler Bayerische Staatsbibliothek

1600 journals in the humanities (16,5%) (June 2013) When it comes to open access in the humanities, it does not feel, to many, as though they were born open or are achieving openness but, rather, that they are having openness violently thrust upon them. (Martin Eve, Guardian Professional, ) The same disciplines [humanities and social sciences] have been slowest to adopt open access opportunities, […]. (Fred Friend, Knowledge Exchange Briefing Paper, 2011)

Secondary Open AccessBorn Open Access Electronic journals Green Open Access Delayed Open Access Gold Open Access With or without APCs? Scholarly monographs/ editions Digitisation of published monographs/editions: out of and within copyright Open Access scholarly monographs Open Access editions Content aggregation Subject-specific / thematic platforms Publication platforms Social media communication Academic blogging etc.

Secondary Open AccessBorn Open Access Electronic journals Green Open Access Delayed Open Access Gold Open Access With or without APCs? Scholarly monographs/ editions Digitisation of published monographs/editions: out of and within copyright Open Access scholarly monographs Open Access editions Content aggregation Subject-specific / thematic platforms Publication platforms Social media communication Academic blogging etc.

Electronic journals – secondary Open Access Green Open Access –Self-archiving policies of publishers in the humanities –Possibly longer embargo periods –PEER project: 28% of the articles self-archived by authors from the humanities and social sciences Delayed Open Access –Moving wall concept –E.g. Francia (Thorbecke-Verlag and German Historical Institute Paris / Bavarian State Library) >Public-private partnership over delayed open access for a scholarly journal

Electronic journals – born Open Access Gold Open Access –Approx peer-reviewed gold OA journals in the Directory of Open Access Journals (June 2013) –Approx. 5% charge Article Processing Charges (APCs) (July 2012) –Majority published by universities and reasearch institutes –Where would the funding come from? –Will mega journals work for the humanities? Structural changes in the journals market likely to be slower than in the STM fields

Secondary Open AccessBorn Open Access Electronic journals Green Open Access Delayed Open Access Gold Open Access With or without APCs? Scholarly monographs/ editions Digitisation of published monographs/editions: out of and within copyright Open Access scholarly monographs Open Access editions Content aggregation Subject-specific / thematic platforms Publication platforms Social media communication Academic blogging etc.

Scholarly monographs/editions – secondary Open Access Digitisation of out-of-copyright content –Vast corpus of (primary) content for scholarly research (still to be fully explored) Digitisation of in-copyright content – Requires special arrangements with rights-holders and/or legislation (e.g. for orphaned works) – E.g.: Project Digi20 ( Contains 4700 in- copyright monographs of German academic publishershttp://digi20.digitale-sammlungen.de/ – E.g. dMGH ( Digital Edition of the Monumenta Germaniae Historicahttp:// Moving Wall arrangements

Scholarly monographs/editions – born Open Access OAPEN ( and DOAB ( – DOAB: 1449 OA monographs (63% in the humanities, June 2013) Open Access monographs business models –Will an author-pays model work? –E.g. Open Book Publishers ( >Publication charge for open access and print on demand –E.g. Knowledge Unlatched ( >Community-based funding –E.g. OpenEdition Freemium ( >OA content and paid for additional services Traditional publishers vs. new players

Secondary Open AccessBorn Open Access Electronic journals Green Open Access Delayed Open Access Gold Open Access With or without APCs? Scholarly monographs/ editions Digitisation of published monographs/editions: out of and within copyright Open Access scholarly monographs Open Access editions Content aggregation Subject-specific / thematic platforms Publication platforms Social media communication Academic blogging etc.

Content aggregation Subject-specific / thematic platforms for primary publication, self-archived and digitised materials E.g. recensio.net ( –Secondary Open Access aggregation of book reviews for historical literature, usually published elsewhere E.g. perspectivia.net ( –Online publication platform for the institutes of the Max Weber Foundation – German Humanities Institutes Abroad –Hosts both documents published in born Open Access as well as digitised material (journals, reviews, monographs, conference proceedings)

Secondary Open AccessBorn Open Access Electronic journals Green Open Access Delayed Open Access Gold Open Access With or without APCs? Scholarly monographs/ editions Digitisation of published monographs/editions: out of and within copyright Open Access scholarly monographs Open Access editions Content aggregation Subject-specific / thematic platforms Publication platforms Social media communication Academic blogging etc.

Social media communication Social media techniques open new channels for scholarly research communication E.g. hypotheses.org ( International publication platform for academic blogs in the humanities and social sciences Covering field work reports, current research projects, reviews etc. 657 blogs (June 2013) E.g. presentations / live reviews in recensio.net Authors can present the core statements of their publications (monographs or articles) on recensio.net and enable expert discussions to take place Make use of the potential of online communication in the academic world

A few final observations Open Access helps to enhance accessibility, visibility and reusability of scholarly research communication in all subjects Potential of the moving wall concept, e.g. delayed Open Access for complete journal runs or in-copyright monographs Development of business models for Open Access monographs rather than APCs for journals Traditional publishers vs. new players vs. new roles for libraries Social media techniques as a means of scholarly communication Open Access in the humanities is much more than the green and gold roads to journal publishing…

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