The silver lining

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

Sandy Thatcher expressed very well the fear that self-archiving 
could lead to a "tipping point" which could cause massive 
disruption to the scholarly publishing system.  Sandy suggests 
that, even without cancellations, it is possible that highly 
profitable publishers could still decide to leave the business. 
If even a few of the large players were to leave the system, 
Sandy argues, journals would have no where to go, as university 
presses such as Penn State do not have the resources to pick up 
all these journals.

The silver lining in this scenario:  if even a few of the large, 
highly profitable publishers were to suddenly decide to go into 
another business - then libraries and universities would have 
plenty of cash left over from subscription budgets they could no 
longer spend , and this cash would then be available to help 
scholars transition their journals, some through newly resourced 
university presses.

It is always possible, of course, that the few very highly 
profitable publishers, continuing to enjoy high profits, would 
not exodus the scholarly publishing system en masse after all.

For more detail, please see my blogpost, Transitioning to Open 
Access:  Beyond Fear of Change, at: http://tinyurl.com/ygyspt

Sandy Thatcher's original post to Liblicense:
http://tinyurl.com/ynddnr

Welcome to Liblicense, Sandy!

Don't miss the First International PKP Scholarly Publishing Conference
July 11 - 13, 2007, Vancouver, BC, Canada
http://ocs.sfu.ca/pkp2007/