Scholarly publishing distribution models In traditional model, libraries/others serve as mediators between information and researchers by buying books or subscribing to journals In open/electronic model, open access is achieved through disintermediation
Why electronic publication? Increase in journal costs : Libraries STM costs increased 152% for 7% fewer journals : University libraries journal costs increased 36% Consolidation of publishers Impact of technology on scholarly communication
Goals of electronic publication Shift control back to scholars Increase visibility and access to scholarly information Increase use and impact of information Create alternatives to commercial publishing through competition Move away from quantity towards quality as criterion for tenure
Who pays? Authors charged for publication Foundations ($3m from Soros Foundation) Libraries and universities (as institutional repositories) Professional societies
Budapest Open Access Initiative Result of meeting of the Open Society Institute in 12/01 Self-archiving Authors deposit to open electronic archives Standards for cross-archive searching Self-archiving publication Open-access journals Open = “free” Alternatives to commercially published journals Authors maintain copyright No subscription or licensing fees
Open Archives Initiative Develop and promote standards for open access (Protocol for Metadata Harvesting) Open = interoperability Open free or unlimited access Eprints.org Dedicated to author/institution archiving
Key players SPARC (Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition) Encourages competition and alternatives The Public Library of Science Urged publishers turn over all research articles within 6 months of publication 30,000+ scientists signed boycott letter Few (if any) followed through Alternative journals
What do the publishers say? Subscription costs cover peer-review, production costs, news and other “added” value Authors will be exploited by lack of copyright or quoted without attribution Professional organizations use subscription costs to cover other activities Elsevier: distribution model change
Examples BioMed Central (1999?) Immediate, free online access to research articles PubMed Central (2000) Storage of research on one centralized site Facilitate sophisticated searches, linkages to other databases Voluntarily contributions by publishers Los Alamos e-print archive (1991)