Lila Guterman, Study Challenges Equation of Open-Access Publishing With an Author-Pays Business Model, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 15, 2005 (accessible only to subscribers). Excerpt: 'The first large-scale comparison of open-access journals with traditional journals has revealed evidence of a publishing industry in flux. A new survey indicates that open-access journals -- those that make their contents free to all readers upon publication -- have widely varying business models. More than half of all of the journals in the survey, whether open-access or subscription-based, reported that they were likely to change their business model in the next three years. The survey's findings were described [by Cara Kaufman] in a presentation on Monday at the London Book Fair....[The study] was financed by groups that are affiliated largely with traditional journals: the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the Association of Learned and Professional Publishers, and HighWire Press....Starting last August, Ms. Kaufman and her colleagues at Kaufman-Wills sent 38-question surveys to journals hosted online by HighWire Press, to journals listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals, and to journals published by members of the medical-college association. They received responses from 367 journals, of which 248 were openly accessible....But some results were unanticipated. Contrary to expectations, author fees were charged by a larger fraction of traditional journals than of open-access journals...."Most people think of open access as being synonymous with author pays," said Ms. Kaufman. "The open-access journals don't rely as much on author fees as one might think." '
(PS: This is a very significant study. It should put an end to loose talk about the "author pays" model as if it were the only model for OA journals. It will definitely help measure the true cost, e.g. to universities, of supporting OA journals rather than non-OA journals. And it should help non-OA journals more accurately assess the economics of adopting one of the OA business models. I've mentioned before that Cara Kaufman is my sister, and I'll mention it again as a disclaimer. But if anyone thinks that my position on OA undermines Cara's neutrality, then they don't know Cara or the groups that commissioned the Kaufman-Wills study.)
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
