In the end, there is no free lunch, and the lunch in academic publishing is mostly paid by taxpayers via the work of researchers as authors, reviewers, editors or consumers of publications.
I think the crucial question is whether public research institutions, funders, learned societies or charities are able to "recapture" a significant part of the academic publishing industry which they have been alienated decades ago to commercial publishers? It does not mean that we do not need commerical publihers, but it does mean we need more competition on innovation, quality and prices. And as the database www.journalprices.com<http://www.journalprices.com> has shown, non-commerical publishers do a very good job if the ratio of quality and prices is concerned. To my observation this process has already started. For example ... - PLoSOne has initiated on enormous pressure even on commercial publishers. And I'm very keen to see what happens if PEERJ is successful ... - Most of the OA journals are obviously funded by public institutions, see: http://pkp.sfu.ca/node/2773 - In the course of OA, a lot of "secondary tools" are created, for exempale new or alternative metrics. Most of them will probably disappear, but they contribute to put existing monopolies under pressure. The point right know is: how to accelerate this process? Best, Falk Best, Falk ________________________________ Von: goal-boun...@eprints.org [goal-boun...@eprints.org]" im Auftrag von "Arthur Sale [a...@ozemail.com.au] Gesendet: Freitag, 10. August 2012 00:29 An: 'Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci)' Betreff: [GOAL] Re: Publications managed by scholarly communities/institutions Sally May I suggest we drop the ‘fairy godmother’ terminology. It seems to be suggesting an impossible dream, as in Cinderella, or alternately is meant to be pejorative. I prefer to simply talk about the sponsored payment model, to be added to the reader-side fee model and the author-side fee model, and combinations of any of these. Sponsorship covers government subvention, professional society support, loss leaders, and even the public donation route. ‘Fairy godmother’ is a bad description of all of these, as they all expect to get something back, even if it is not monetary. Arthur Sale From: goal-boun...@eprints.org [mailto:goal-boun...@eprints.org] On Behalf Of Sally Morris Sent: Thursday, 9 August 2012 8:50 PM To: 'Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci)' Subject: [GOAL] Re: Publications managed byscholarly communities/institutions These are all examples of the 'fairy godmother' payment model Sally Sally Morris South House, The Street, Clapham, Worthing, West Sussex, UK BN13 3UU Tel: +44 (0)1903 871286 Email: sa...@morris-assocs.demon.co.uk<mailto:sa...@morris-assocs.demon.co.uk> _______________________________________________ GOAL mailing list GOAL@eprints.org http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/goal
