re: potential positive spiral in transition to open access

[Sandy Thatcher <sgt3@psu.edu>]

The fallacy here is the assumption that without a publisher's 
staff overseeing and organizing the "volunteer" work of academic 
editors, it will get done in a timely fashion and produce a 
steady stream of publishable articles. All of my experience in 
forty years of publishing suggests that few scholars have the 
self-discipline and motivation to do this kind of work without 
external pressures. We have difficulty keeping some of our 
journals on schedule even with a lot of oversight!

Sandy Thatcher
Penn State Press


> Peter Banks wrote:
>
> I fail to see any rationale basis for zeroing in on 
> subscriptionscosting more than $1,000.  [Peter goes on to say 
> that my modelmakes no distinction between journals in this 
> category]. 
> (from:http://www.library.yale.edu/~llicense/ListArchives/0706/msg00082.html)
>
> Comment:
>
> The rationale for focusing on subscriptions costing more 
> than$1,000 US per year, in this particular example, is that this 
> isthe cost of a year's hosting and support for a journal at 
> thenon-profit Scholarly 
> Exchange(http://www.scholarlyexchange.org/).
>
> A library paying subscriptions in this price range might be 
> welladvised to inquire as to whether the journal could manage on 
> avolunteer / in-kind support model.  My model assumes that only 
> asmall fraction of journals in this price range (10%) would 
> beable to manage.  Nevertheless, if even this small percentage 
> ofjournals could transition in this fashion, there would 
> besignificant savings over the library community as a whole, 
> whichcould then be applied to other open access initiatives.
>
> How could such an expensive journal manage on a volunteer 
> /in-kind support model, or how can you tell whether a 
> journalcould successfully transition in this way?
>
> The key is whether the journal is essentially managing on such 
> amodel now.  In peer-reviewed scholarly literature, authors, 
> andpeer reviewers, are not paid.  Payment of editors varies 
> widely;it can be a volunteer task, underpaid / paid at an 
> honorariumlevel, or highly paid.  Support costs also vary. 
> Some journalspay for office space; others enjoy free space at 
> universities,and editors and others often work from their homes 
> as well.
>
> Even if a journal is unlikely to be able to transition with 
> justthe revenue from a single subscription, a polite inquiry 
> wouldnot hurt. It would be helpful to advocacy efforts to change 
> inscholarly communication to point out to the editors of 
> suchjournals, that the cost of a single subscription is more 
> thansufficient to fund one of the more substantial costs of 
> managinga journal - hosting and support of the online version.
>
> Further comments on my blogpost, A Potential Positive Cycle:More 
> Access, More Funds, are most 
> welcome!http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com/2007/06/potential-positive-cycle-more-access.html
>
> Any opinion expressed in this e-mail is that of the author alone,and
> does not reflect the opinion or policy of BC ElectronicLibrary
> Network or Simon Fraser University Library.
>
> Heather Morrison, MLIS
> The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics
> http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com