On the topic of how OA hurts non-profit publishing, today's
"Inside Higher Ed." has, perhaps not analysis,
but an example.
The article describes how the new NEH guidelines for
Scholarly
Editions Grants will give preference to those that make the
results OA:
"...The NEH has issued new guidelines - just as
scholars were
finishing grant applications - granting preference to those
projects that make all of their documents freely available
online. While the scholars who work on these projects
support
digitization (and generally do put their work online), they
say
that the humanities endowment's plan could make it
impossible for
university presses to afford to publish their work."
For the full article, see http://www.inside
highered.com/news/
2006/09/18/documents
These guidelines (coming two weeks before applications are
due)
highlight one problem--that non-profit publishers cannot
rapidly
change their business models. In the case of scholarly
editions,
the publication process generally takes years, if not
decades.
Cost recovery has assumed a certain level of income from
sales of
print editions or licensing of online content. The
publishers
(nearly always university presses, without ready access to
capital) cannot easily forego that income mid-way through
the
series.
This example also underlines the important distinction (made
earlier in this thread) between OA in the sciences, largely
concerned with journal publishing, and in the humanities,
where
this kind of project -- large sets of documents, carefully
edited, very cost- and labor- intensive -- is common. The
article
cited above points out that "These projects rely on
federal
grants that are relatively small ($100,000 for a year is
considered a good grant) compared to science research, but
that
play a key role in keeping these projects going."
Calls for open access to federally-funded research should
recognize these distinctions. Those of us who want to
support
effective scholarly communication can also work to find ways
to
collaborate with and support non-profit publishers who share
our
goals. A good first step is recognizing that we can't
simply do
away with their business models overnight.
Monica McCormick
Director of Digital Publishing
NCSU Libraries
monica_mccormick ncsu.edu
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