RE: The silver lining

[Sandy Thatcher <sgt3@psu.edu>]

Yes, Mary, but there is only a handful of presses that have this 
capacity now, perhaps a half-dozen, including Chicago of course, 
and I doubt that they could ramp up their carrying capacity to 
the extent necessary to make the transition smooth. I'm talking 
about thousands of journals, not a few hundred! Also, university 
presses simply don't have easy access to capital resources. We 
can't sell stock, few of us have any capital reserves to speak 
of, we don't deal with investment bankers, and our parent 
universities aren't anxious to have us take out large bank loans. 
So, where do the funds come from to increase our journal carrying 
capacity a hundred fold?

--Sandy Thatcher
Penn State Press


> Fortunately some of the university presses have organizations 
> and systems (Web-based peer review and online hosting platforms 
> that are equal to those used by major commercial publishers) 
> that give them the capacity to take on publication of more 
> journals.  In fact, we are eager to do so in the years ahead.
>
> Mary Summerfield
> Director, Business Development and Planning
> University of Chicago Press
> Chicago, IL  60637
>
> -----Original Message-----
> [mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Heather Morrison
> Sent: Tuesday, December 19, 2006 10:01 AM
> To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
> Subject: The silver lining
>
> 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

--
Sanford G. Thatcher, Director
Penn State University Press
University Park, PA 16802-1003
e-mail: sgt3@psu.edu
http://www.psupress.org