Re: Library subscription rebates for Open Choice content

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

Ann Okerson wrote:

Dear Readers: Various of our journal contracts now state that 
where authors pay for Open Choice (or something like it, i.e., 
cover costs of publication of their articles to be free to all 
readers worldwide), library subscriptions will be rebated for the 
equivalent.

Questions:

1. How do you all imagine this will work in real life?

2. Has it happened already, i.e., has Open Choice or Author 
Choice or whatever, been around for long enough? Or, will it 
happen as of 2008 and if so, what are publishers preparing to do 
to adjust 2008 subscriptions?

Comment:

This is wonderful news, Ann, I am very glad to hear that journal 
contracts are now addressing Open Choice!

If librarians are wondering why it would make sense to have 
contracts covering both subscriptions and Open Choice, the recent 
news release from APA on their Open Choice program, posted to 
Liblicense, may be instructive.

Excerpt:

The plan goes into effect after several years of experimentation 
with the APS journal Physiological Genomics. During a three year 
period,APS offered authors the choice of whether to pay an open 
access fee plus standard author charges. At the end of the test 
period, 18 percent of authors opted for open access. (Full post 
at http://www.library.yale.edu/~llicense/ListArchives/0707/ 
msg00015.html)

If 18% of the content of a journal is being paid for through open 
choice options, it makes sense for libraries to seek an average 
decrease in subscription rates of about 18%.  There could also be 
good reasons why the institutions producing the research which 
are paying for the open choice (whether paying themselves, or 
indirectly through research grants) to be the greatest 
beneficiaries.

Savvy administrators of such institutions will be looking for 
opportunities to leverage the article processing fee payments to 
offset subscription costs.  Fellow librarians, if we want to be 
positioned for the future, we want to be the coordinating 
organization within our university for article processing fee 
payments - regardless of whether they are paid for from library 
budgets, or other sources such as departmental funds or research 
grants.

When a number of payments go from one institution to another, 
there are efficiencies in coordination (one quarterly or annual 
payment, rather than many one-off payments).  These efficiencies 
apply to both payer and payee.  BioMedCentral recognizes this, 
and already has this worked into their library membership model.

Any opinion expressed in this e-mail is that of the author alone, 
and does not reflect the opinion or policy of BC Electronic 
Library Network or Simon Fraser University Library.

Heather Morrison, MLIS
The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics
http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com