The publishing cooperative model that Raym Crow has proposed
(<http://www.arl.org/sparc/pubs/papers/Cooperatives_v1
.pdf>) is
an innovative non-profit alternative to the traditional
for-profit publishers who have customarily locked content
behind
fiscal firewalls. Concerned that academic entities might not
be
able to offer the speed and flexibility needed to speed the
development of small open access journals, not-for-profit
Scholarly Exchange began offering at the beginning of 2006 a
next-step-beyond-cooperative model, one that we call
facilitated
publishing (<http://www.schol
arlyexchange.org>).
Our belief is that scholars and journals benefit from
transitional assistance - the move from print to electronic,
from
subscriptions to open access - and need guidance in the
critical
area of sustainability - archiving content appropriately and
developing an alternative revenue stream - everything that
works
to guarantee long-term viability for the container (the
journal)
and the content. In fact, one can view the journal as both
conduit and filter, moving content from creation to storage.
Under this model, SE as a neutral and independent entity
provides
a free platform (utilizing OJS at present), fully
implemented and
hosted free (costs offset by advertising or donations),
available
for immediate use, and accompanied by a range of free
advisory
and self-help services to facilitate the development of open
access e-journals. Journal editors benefit from their
colleagues' experience, submissions are processed,
evaluated, and
published, and content is free to reside on the journal's
site
and be archived in a manner of their choosing. The startup
process can be reduced in time and complexity, and editors
can
devote their energies to the recruitment and harvesting of
good
content.
The cost of publishing an article consists essentially of
content
production costs (research), review-and-editorial oversight,
article preparation, display (in the electronic world), and
archiving.
Content creation, the research itself and manuscript
preparation,
is assumed to be a part of everyday academic activities and
is
covered by salary and grants. So too is the review process
and
much of the editorial oversight - all part of the daily
give-and-take of academic life.
The only real costs - out-of-pocket costs - are such items
as
copy editing, file conversion to PDF, HTML or XML, and the
cost
of maintaining the electronic publishing platform. Rapid
evolution in and simplification of technology have driven
many of
these cost elements down dramatically.
As one simple example, documents created in Microsoft Word
or
Open Office can be converted automatically to PDF as a final
step
in document processing - and at virtually no cost. There are
services available globally to convert documents to
structured-and-tagged XML or HTML (for submission to
specific
electronic archives) for well under $1 a page. A 5-page
article
could be available in both PDF and HTML for $4.50. Copy
editing
is in a state of flux as well, with many journals asking
their
authors to submit final versions fully copy edited. Should a
journal wish to handle the process itself, the cost per
article
should be in the $40-60 range after the journal editor and
the
author have polished the content.
Add to this a free or minimal cost publish-and-display
environment, and the per-article cost should be in the
$10-$100
range rather than $4000 as commercial publishers reported -
two
orders of magnitude less.
The university-based cooperative publishing model and the
neutral
facilitated publishing model offer two viable options for
the
development and dissemination of what has heretofore been a
costly and constrained intellectual environment.
Julian H. Fisher, MD
Managing Director
Scholarly Exchange, Inc.
...a not-for-profit 501 (c) (3) corporation devoted to
scholarly publishing...
www.scholarlyexchange.org
320 Dudley Street
Brookline, MA 02445
617 232-4151
fisher scholarlyexchange.org
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