Open Access News

SEP organizes the profession of philosophy to collaboratively maintain a dynamic open access reference work....All entries, and updates to entries, are rigorously refereed prior to publication on the Web. Our backend Web content management system keeps track of the state of every entry on a daily basis....Finally, we make a fixed copy of SEP every quarter, and these quarterly archives provide stable content for purposes of citation.

This is a publishing model that is rather different from a journal. Our production routines are asynchronous (each entry is produced on its own customized schedule), and thus our workflow control system is far more complex than that required by journals published on a regular schedule. We now publish an average of ten entries a month, and five updates a month, at a total project cost of $191,000 a year for AY2005–06 ($154,000 of this total is for salaries and benefits). SEP has mirror sites at three other universities, all of which are donating their resources. These sites synchronize to the Stanford server on a nightly basis....Finally, our copyright policy works for the author: authors retain copyright to reprint their articles in any fixed medium, but give  SEP an exclusive license to publish the entry on the Web....

From its inception in 1995, SEP has been open access....

After investigating various long-term funding models, a committee consisting of representatives of Stanford, International Coalition of Library Consortia, SPARC, and SOLINET came up with the idea of creating a partnership that builds a permanent operating fund for SEP....A 4.8 percent yearly payout on a $4.125 million fund would secure SEP’s operating budget for the long term. The partnership calls for 1) Stanford University to raise $1.125 million towards this fund (primarily from private donors), and 2) the large umbrella library organizations to raise $3 million (primarily from libraries worldwide at institutions offering degrees in philosophy). SOLINET will collect library contributions and turn them over to Stanford under a contract that protects library contributions in that: a) Stanford is allowed to use library money only for the support of  SEP, and b) if the SEP project ever terminates, Stanford will return the money the libraries have contributed with any interest and appreciation (in excess of the payout) earned while Stanford was entrusted with the funds....

SEP is a true university-library partnership and presents a new model for open access that dovetails precisely with the goals and objectives of the scholarly communication community. In particular SEP provides:
• the broadest possible access to published research;
• control by scholars, the academy, and the library community over publishing;
• fair and reasonable prices for receiving the benefits of membership in SEPIA;
• completely open access to scholarship;
• innovations in publishing that reduce distribution costs, speed delivery, and extend access to scholarly research;
• quality assurance in publishing through peer review;
• fair use of copyrighted information for education and research purposes; and
• preservation of scholarly information for long-term future use....

Once SEP is funded, there are no further fees, and open access is ensured in perpetuity....Perhaps, most importantly, participation in this partnership enables libraries to make a difference; your library would do its part in making an investment that furthers both scholarly communication and open access....

PS:  I've often blogged my support for the SEP and its elegant funding model.  If your library supports SEP users, and it almost certainly does, please urge it to make a one-time contribution to build SEP's permanent OA endowment.