Research funding agencies contribute to scholarship - and publishing

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

Research funding agencies are net contributors to scholarship, 
and to scholarly publishing.

First, the funding provided makes it possible to do more 
research. Researchers give away the articles made possible by the 
research. Publishers pay nothing to the researcher, or to the 
funding agency. Publishers also often benefit directly through 
payment of traditional page charges, and indirectly through the 
indirect costs of research which often help to pay for library 
subscriptions.  This source of revenue may not be obvious to the 
publisher.  The page charges are paid by the author (from funds 
provided by the funding agency), the subscriptions by the library 
(sometimes through funds made available through transfers from 
departments with research funding).

To summarize this relationship:  publishers are net beneficiaries 
of public research funding, receiving free content and public 
revenues both for production and subscriptions.  Funding agencies 
are net contributors.

Any opinion expressed in this e-mail is that of the author alone, 
and does not represent 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