Re: Economics of open access publishing

[Ann Okerson <ann.okerson@yale.edu>]

Fred -- I think there is some confusion here. The article is 
definitely accessible.  You can click on the URL below, or if 
that doesn't work for you, then go to the home page of SERIALS. 
There, click on the journal title at the top of the page.  This 
click will take you to a listing of volumes from 8 (1995) to 
date.  Then click on the most recent (March 2006) and look for 
the author's name -- click on the article for a very nice full 
text presentation.  We have no subscription to this title but I 
had no trouble with access from my machine at work or from my 
home machine.

Ann Okerson/Yale Library
Moderator, liblicense-l


On Mon, 8 May 2006, "FrederickFriend" wrote:

> As this article appears to be available only on subscription, 
> it is difficult to assess the value of research we cannot read, 
> but I make the following points:
>
> 1. What the author of this article appears to have done is to 
> compare a selection of open access publication charges with a 
> selection of the costs of the present subscription system, i.e. 
> comparing some publishers' OA charges with library subscription 
> payments, which of course are only a part of the cost of the 
> subscription system.
>
> 2. I am also not sure whether the author has used accurate 
> figures on the number of articles for which CERN funding would 
> be used, as research undertaken at CERN is funded by many 
> institutions across the world. A total picture of particle 
> physics research across the world and the cost of disseminating 
> that research would give a more accurate picture.
>
> 3. The article appears only to cover costs without any 
> assessment of economic or academic benefits from either the 
> subscription or the OA model. On the issue of large versus 
> small institutions, for example, even if the costs of OA are 
> higher (unproven from what I can assess of this article) the 
> benefits will also be correspondingly higher.
>
> Fred Friend
> JISC Scholarly Communication Consultant
> Honorary Director Scholarly Communication UCL
> E-mail ucylfjf@ucl.ac.uk
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Phil Davis" <pmd8@cornell.edu>
> To: <liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu>
> Sent: Saturday, May 06, 2006 2:06 AM
> Subject: Economics of open access publishing
>
> > Economics of open access publishing
> > Magaly Bescones Dominguez
> > Serials - 19(1), March 2006
> > http://serials.uksg.org/openurl.asp?genre=3Darticle&issn=3D0953-0460&volume=
> > =3D19&issue=3D1&spage=3D52
> >
> > In this new article published in Serials, the author calculated the article
> > costs under two Open Access models: (1) Simple model -- the publisher's
> > costs are covered by a single source, and (2) Hybrid model -- the
> > publisher's costs are covered by a complex combination of two (or more)
> > elements, such as the payment by the author, subscription fees, the
> > institution=92s affiliation, etc.
> >
> > "The results shown in Table 4 are very clear. Publication costs
> > for CERN under the IOP open access model would be at least nine
> > times more expensive than the current subscription fee of JHEP."
> > (p. 56), and
> >
> > "the publication cost for CERN under Springer Open Choice model
> > would be at least five times more expensive than the current
> > subscription fee" (p. 57).  These results were also confirmed by
> > the PLoS model.  The author concludes from her analysis that, "in
> > general, the open access models available would be more expensive
> > for CERN than the cost of periodical subscriptions." (p. 57)
> [SNIP]