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NEW MODELS FOR SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION
Frederick J. FriendOSI Open Access Advocate
JISC ConsultantHonorary Director Scholarly Communication UCL
COMMUNICATION
Communication the “raison d’etre” for the scholarly journals started in the 17th century
Communication leads to feed back and to further research The scholarly journal has never been the sole means by which
scholars have communicated research results Personal correspondence Before publication authors have shared drafts of journal articles After publication they have sent one another off-prints of articles These means of communication have existed alongside reading
articles in the journals
NETWORKING : AN OPEN ACCESS MODEL
Networking of informal exchanges an old model using new techniques
Electronic exchange of pre-prints and post-prints as important as exchange of typewritten manuscripts and off-prints
If electronic exchange is important, it has to be allowed for Some authors continuing to share texts even if publisher’s copyright
agreement does not allow for it Will these informal exchanges of journal articles become more
formal and replace the present publication system? Technically possible but this has not happened with the physics
database ArXiv Quality control and academic reward functions have continued to be
handled by traditional journals in physics
DIFFERENT MODELS FOR DIFFERENT FUNCTIONS
Separation of communication function from quality control and academic reward functions
Communication function can be handled by network access to author’s text, whether for other authors or for general access
In the subscription model publishers have gained their income from the communication function, by charging readers to read
In the Internet world to continue this model is to fight a losing battle Politicians looking for increased use of publicly-funded academic
information Funding agencies looking for better value for money by increasing
access to research reports Will publishers continue to restrict access to those who can afford to
pay?
PUBLISHERS PROVIDE BENEFITS TO AUTHORS AND TO THE ACADEMIC COMMUNITY
Communication of the text of journal articles direct from author to reader essentially anarchic
Publishers contribute quality control and an organized system of indexed journal titles
Academic reward system built upon this structure The academic community needs a system of organised quality
control Apart from publishers, universities and funding agencies could
perform this function through institutional repositories but no sign that they wish to do so
Prime function of institutional repositories is communication, including pre-prints and post-prints
THE FAULT-LINE IN THE PRESENT PUBLISHING SYSTEM
Service separated from payment Authors receive the service, libraries pay Separation of publishing service from publishing payment has
opened up a rift, leading to disputes between publishers and librarians
How much should a library be expected to pay for quality control for the academic community or for academic reward for authors?
Who benefits from the current publishing system? Authors, publishers and to some extent readers.
Who gains no benefit? Librarians and funding agencies
OPEN ACCESS PUBLISHING
Re-connects service and payment Authors can assess whether they are receiving value for money
from publishers Funding agencies also become involved in the assessment of value
for money Peer review and editorial control still strong to ensure quality Publishers can still benefit if they provide a good service to authors Librarians may lose part of their budget but they are freed to
concentrate upon their true role of assisting readers to find information, of which more will be available on open access
Open access will probably become dominant model for academic publishing but subscription model may continue for some titles in subject areas with low research funding
COLLABORATION IN EVERYBODY’S INTERESTS
When all stakeholders can benefit from an open access model, it makes sense for us to co-operate to achieve mutual benefit
Whenever a major change occurs there are fears and uncertainties, but open access provides better models for scholarly communication, and we need to work through the uncertainties together
Open Society Institute wishes to work with publishers – e.g. in developing new business models for open access
Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) in the UK offering support for publishers and for authors willing to trial open access
Publicly-funded or privately-funded grants provide support for transition or for new initiatives like Public Library of Science while robust open access business models are proved
Thank you for listening!
E-mail [email protected] or [email protected] Information on Open Society Institute open access support at
www.soros.org/openaccess/ Information on various UK JISC initiatives at www.jisc.ac.uk – e.g.
under “Funding Opportunities”
