Economics of Open Access: Another Perspective

[Heather Morrison <heatherm@eln.bc.ca>]

Analysis of data supplied by Magaly Bascones Dominguez in Serials
earlier this year, supplemented by information from CERN,
presents strong evidence for the affordability of one of the
potential open access business models, OA by processing fees.
This data suggest that OA by processing fees would be feasible,
assuming reasonable but realistic processing fees, using library
periodicals subscriptions as the only source of revenue. As an
exceptionally research-intensive organization, CERN represents
the worst-case scenario for this business model, which costs
research organizations proportionately more than other kinds of
organizations. Therefore, evidence of the affordability of this
business model at CERN strongly suggests overall affordability of
the model. Taking the CERN library periodicals budget as a base,
an average per-article cost of 1,776 CHF / article (1,132 Euro,
$1,436 USD) would be possible using current expenditure levels.
If the IOP charge quoted at 573 Euro for New Journal of Physics
were the average - CERN library could pay for a fully
OA-by-processing fee model - AND, save half of its periodicals
budget, too.

This is not an endorsement of the OA-by-processing fee approach,
nor is it meant to suggest that all the revenue for open access
should come from library subscriptions budgets. This is only
meant as an illustration, that this is well within the realms of
possibility.

For details, see:

http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com/2006/07/economics-of-open-access-publis=
h
ing.html

Heather Morrison
http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com
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