[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
RE: Who gets hurt by Open Access?
- To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
- Subject: RE: Who gets hurt by Open Access?
- From: "Dr. James J. O'Donnell" <provost@georgetown.edu>
- Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 19:19:49 EDT
- Reply-to: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
- Sender: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
As founding co-editor of Bryn Mawr Classical Review, I am the seniormost 100% Open Access electronic journal publisher in the humanities, going back 15 years now. We fit the profile of what David Goodman described as a low-effort volunteer operation, and there is an element of truth to what he says. We get by on operating costs in the low five figures, cross-subsidized by a print publication that really only makes sense as a print publication. However: 1. We are a book review journal and run a much lighter peer review system than an original-article journal would have to run. 2. Voluntary labor is a beautiful thing, with the acute risk that you get what you pay for. We have gone as far as we have because of the zeal of the founders, but at the moment we are in serious conversations about what the future of the journal will be like in 5-10 years, when the founders want to get out of the way, and we are planning ahead. The answer is: more people, more overhead, more costs. 3. When David says "almost no direct cost", he is assuming that a benevolent force is providing servers, network, sysadmins, and security at no cost. Nice deal, when you can get it, but it doesn't mean that the journal runs "at no cost". 4. Some capital investment is required from time to time. We had a foundation grant in the low 6 figures some years ago that enabled us to build some discipline-specific web tools. Even if we assume that next generations of publishing software will be transparent and easy, such transitions will generally involve more work than you think in migrating the existing data forward (that was our biggest headache at the time of investment). There are upgrades that we could imagine at this point, but there's (a) no money and (b) no extra volunteer time, so we let them slide. As it happens, we've acquired a strong niche market of readership, so we're not at risk of being competed out of business immediately. Others would not be so lucky. There is such a thing as a free lunch, but you have to line up at the soup kitchen for it. Choices range up from there, and we've chosen a fast food model; others will want more. Baseball, old Red Barber liked to say, is more than a lot like life. So is publishing. Jim O'Donnell Georgetown U.
- Prev by Date: RE: Who gets hurt by Open Access?
- Next by Date: Editorial - Orphan Works and Unlocatable Copyright Owners
- Previous by thread: RE: Who gets hurt by Open Access?
- Next by thread: Re: Who gets hurt by Open Access?
- Index(es):