Janneke Adema has now provided a more detailed and thorough analysis of Geoffrey Crossick's Monographs and Open Access report for HEFCE:
'The Monograph Crisis Revisited', https://openreflections.wordpress.com/2015/01/29/the-monograph-crisis-revisited/#_ftn5 On 24/01/2015 12:06, Gary Hall wrote: > Can I ask, what are people on GOAL making of the understanding of the > monograph crisis conveyed in Geoffrey Crossick's report, Monographs and > Open Access, for HECFE in the UK? > http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/rereports/year/2015/monographs/ > > According to this report, the monograph crisis isn't so much about a > decline in the number of monographs that are being acquired by libraries > because said libraries can no longer afford them due to the high and > rising costs of journal subscriptions. Nor is it about the impact this > state of affairs has on the kind of monographs that are being published > - more short academic/trade books, textbooks, introductions and > reference works selected for commercial reasons; and fewer original, > specialised research monographs chosen on the basis of their academic > quality and value - and the consequences of all this for the academy, > and for early career academics especially. Instead, the monograph crisis > is said to be more about the number of monographs that are being > published. And since the latter is apparently growing in the UK > (although it's worth noting that the term monograph is often being used > quite broadly here to take in edited collections, critical editions and > other longer outputs such as scholarly exhibition catalogues), then one > of the report's conclusions is that it's not appropriate to talk about a > monograph crisis. > > But doesn't redefining the monograph crisis like this have the effect of > taking the focus of debate away from the policies and practices of those > publishing companies that are responsible for the rising costs of > journal subscriptions: i.e. precisely the state of affairs that is > regarded by many as being one of the major causes of the monograph > crisis, and therefore as something that needs to be taken fully into > account if the issue is ever to be adequately addressed? Is this the > light in which we need to read the conclusion of the report's summary, > which emphasizes the importance of 'working with the grain', and of > ensuring that any future policies for open-access monographs 'sustain > and enhance', rather than damage, how people currently produce and > communicate research in the arts, humanities and social sciences? > -- Gary Hall Research Professor of Media and Performing Arts School of Art and Design, Coventry University Co-Director, Open Humanities Press http://openhumanitiespress.org/ Visiting Professor, Hybrid Publishing Lab, Leuphana University http://www.leuphana.de/zentren/cdc/forschung-projekte/alle/hybrid-publishing-lab.html Websitehttp://www.garyhall.info NEW BOOK: Open Education: A Study in Disruption (London: Rowman and Littlefield International, 2014) - co-authored by Coventry’s Open Media Group and Mute Publishing http://www.rowmaninternational.com/books/open-education and available open access athttp://bit.ly/1tI3XEV _______________________________________________ GOAL mailing list GOAL@eprints.org http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/goal
