Open Access Monographs: Enabling better scholarship in Humanities and Social Sciences. Rupert Gatti

Scholarly monograph The scholarly monograph is important for HSS disciplines for a number of reasons: 1.Primary route for the dissemination of new research 2.Important as a structure for the creation of new research. – Academics use the process of writing a book as a vehicle to conduct and organise research 3.Published book is used as a measure for the “quality” of research and researcher. – Post publication reviews/awards – Publisher reputation/brand

Open Access is a better model In this seminar I will argue that the Legacy Publishing Model is failing in the role of disseminating knowledge in the role of encouraging new research in the role of a measure of quality and that for both researchers and research institutions Open Access is a better model.

Legacy Publishing Model Primary output: Printed volume Price: $ Sales: Customers: Libraries Sales revenue: $20-40k per title – Distributors net revenue $10-20k – Publishers net revenue $10-20k Business Model: Success (more books published over last 10 years ago) Dissemination Model: Failure (no readers, no innovation)

Implications of Failure HSS disciplines fighting for recognition and funding in comparison of STM – EU on point of scrapping HSS funding for Horizon Ended up allowing it to apply within bigger themes. – Japanese Govt instructing universities to close HSS faculties and convert to “areas that better meet society’s needs” How can we justify use of public monies when, with sales of , effectively nobody has access to our best research

OBPs Open Access Model Objectives: – Maximise readership – Maximise engagement/re-use – Digital & innovative publications allowing new research possibilities Business Model: Breakeven (non-profit) – Minimise costs – Develop alternative revenue sources

OBP Online Readers

Average online readers, per title, per month (over last 12 months) by year of publication

OBP Online Readers

Locations of online readers of Oral Literature in Africa on OBP site, over last 12 months.

OA: Better dissemination OBP titles: approx. 50k online readers over 10 years – Two orders of magnitude more readers than sales in legacy model Broader geographic reach Broader reader demographic Re-use – allowing others to identify and redistribute to new markets

OA: Enabling better research Linking research directly to primary sources – Archives – Repositories – Databases Embed multimedia content – Audio – Video Social Editing – Pre-publication – Post-publication Re-use – Alternative analysis of same material – Datamining & new research techniques

Examples A Musicology of Performance A Musicology of Performance by Dorottya Fabian Storytelling in Northern Zambia Storytelling in Northern Zambia by Robert Cancel In the Land of the Romanovs In the Land of the Romanovs by Anthony Cross From Dust to Digital From Dust to Digital edited by Maja Kominko What Works in Conservation?What Works in Conservation? Edited by William Suhterland et al.

OA: Dissemination Strategies for Institutions and Individuals Open Access introduces the possibility of an independent dissemination strategy by a Research Centre or a Researcher Research Centre – base institutional unit for academic research, e.g. – University Faculty or Department – Externally funded research centre

RC: Objectives Objectives will be different for every RC, but some may include: Conduct high quality research Attract high quality researchers Provide resources required for research Address specific issues or audiences Financial sustainability

Audience Who are the audiences RCs seek to engage with? – Other researchers – Students and lecturers in research area – Research funders Public funding councils Private enterprise – Potential students (attract good students undergrad/phd – attract funding through fees – overseas students) – Policy makers – Alumni – Other ‘users’ of research Industry personal – Geographic reach

Legacy Model - Indirect Dissemination Leave the dissemination strategy to the researcher – don’t take copyright from author – don’t tell author where to publish Researcher delegates dissemination to publisher – Objectives of individual researcher may differ from the RC – Signs over copyright, exclusive publishing clause etc Exclusive publishing clause: – means RC cannot proactively develop independent dissemination strategy

Research Centre Research Funding Researchers Students Publishers Exclusivity What is published, and where Infrastructure Audience

Impact of indirect control With legacy model control over dissemination by researchers can only be through the employment contract with the researcher. Is it surprising that we have such reliance on citation metrics and specific journal/publisher destinations in performance appraisal?

OA allows direct dissemination CC BY licence and non-exclusive publishing agreement means that research centres are free to develop their own dissemination strategy without interfering with either the researchers rights or publisher restrictions. Similarly individual researchers have more flexibility over their own dissemination strategies.

Research Centre Research Funding Researchers Students Publishers Exclusivity Infrastructure X Dissemination Research Centre dissemination strategy Researcher dissemination strategy Audience

Direct dissemination Allows researchers to develop innovative research techniques and processes Different audiences require different information, in different formats Ways to interact with audiences differ RC ‘brand’ can be developed RC can use research for objectives that may not directly align with the researcher

Dissemination as infrastructure of RC What do you want your dissemination infrastructure to achieve? – Provide flexibility for improved and innovative activities be researchers – Provide improved teaching resources for lecturers – Provide RC with better ways to interact with external audiences – Develop the ‘brand’ or awareness of the RC

Business Models 1.Identify Objectives 2.Identify Costs – and opportunity costs 3.Identify Revenue sources

OBPs Open Access Model Objectives: – Maximise readership – Maximise engagement/re-use – Digital & innovative publications allowing new research possibilities Business Model: Breakeven (non-profit) – Minimise costs – Develop alternative revenue sources

OBP Costs ($190k) 18 titles published

OBP Revenue ($198k)

OBP Revenue Sources 40% from booksales – Of which 2/3 paperback sales, 1/5 hardback sales 60% non-booksales – Really important for OBP, – and likely to be for new initiatives Lesson: non-sales financial support for new OA initiatives are really important

OBP Case studies: RC Book Series Case study 1: RC has an existing legacy publishing house, wishes to convert to OA Solution: OBP Distribution only RC keep existing process in place OBP: Takes “camera ready files” Creates multiple digital editions Distributes print/digital/open access editions through our existing infrastructure

Case Study 2:

Conclusion The Legacy Publishing Model is failing HSS scholars and scholarship. Open Access publishing models provide alternatives which are effective, cost efficient, and sustainable.