Open Access News

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Saturday, August 18, 2007

AnthroSource moves to Wiley-Blackwell

AnthroSource, the publishing arm of the American Anthropological Association, is moving from the University of California Press to Wiley-Blackwell.  Thanks to William Walsh for the alert, this excerpt from the announcement, and the related links and excerpt to put the move in perspective:

From today's announcement from Rachel Lee, UC Press:

Following a lengthy bidding process, the American Anthropological Association informed us earlier this week that they will be moving their publications program -- including AnthroSource -- to Wiley/Blackwell Publishers as of January 2008. Pricing for the 2007/2008 subscription year will be forthcoming directly from Wiley/Blackwell....

You may remember that the AAA publicly opposed FRPAA last year and that, prior to being disbanded, the AnthroSource Steering Committee opposed that opposition....

….Former AAA Director of Publications Susan Skomal's "Transformation of a Scholarly Society Publishing Program" may also be of interest. An excerpt:

Today’s electronic environment mitigates against a small scholarly publisher continuing to operate its entire program independently. Given the complex set of working parts, partnering with vendors, consultants, funding agencies, and even other publishers increases the likelihood of success. Moreover, AAA deliberately chose to work with as many nonprofit and likeminded partners as possible to ensure that it could meet its mission to provide scholarship affordably to both members and libraries.

Comment.  This seems to put an end to the hopes of many anthropologists that the AAA would convert AnthroSource to OA.

Update. Also see this comment by Tom Wilson:

The basis for the decision appears to be, in part, a report by the AAA's Director of Publishing which contains a truly amazing proposition:
Today’s electronic environment mitigates against a small scholarly publisher continuing to operate its entire program independently.
I don't think I've seen such an unintelligent statement about publishing in the electronic era. It is exactly the opposite of the true situation: the electronic environment makes it easier for scholarly societies to pursue an independent programme. I would urge members of the AAA to abandon their organization (since it has abandoned them to the vagaries of commercial decision making) and develop their own alternative publishing outlets. There are many examples of collaborative, non-commercial OA journals from which they could take models and encouragement.