Re: Roundtable Press Release (Access to Research Results)

[Joseph Esposito <espositoj@gmail.com>]

Any change in policy will affect someone or something.  I find it 
curious that there is little attention being paid to the 
implications of the embargo.  The assumption is that the 
economics of the "system" can be maintained provided that 
everybody agrees to protect the revenues of current issues.  If 
all publishers were current issues publishers, and if all revenue 
derived from journals were for current issues, then this might 
seem like a matter of no importance.  But I suggest that 
librarians look around to see if they are indeed paying money for 
materials that are not current issues.  What will happen to those 
materials and the services that deliver them?

This is catch-and-release publishing:  invest in a product, but 
then return it to the wild.  It is humane, but ultimately 
unsustainable, and, of course, that which is unsustainable cannot 
be sustained.

In a separate post, Sandy Thatcher comments that the implications 
for monographs has not yet been taken up.  Typically, monograph 
publishers earn 55-60% of their revenue from their backlists.  A 
catch-and-release policy will literally stop the entire monograph 
industry in its tracks.  Presumably humanities faculty need not 
publish a book any more in order to receive tenure and promotion.

Joe Esposito

On Fri, Jan 15, 2010 at 6:28 PM, Sally Morris
<sally@morris-assocs.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> I fully agree with Sandy about the significance of the report.
> It is hugely encouraging that the majority of players all endorse
> an evolutionary (rather than revolutionary) approach towards a
> shared objective of maximizing access to research scholarship
> without harming the value-added publishing process.
>
> It is encouraging that the OSTP saw fit to seek advice from such
> a balanced group - which certainly doesn't happen everywhere -
> and I very much hope that they, and the various research funding
> agencies, will heed the group's advice.
>
> Sally Morris