Sandy Thatcher expressed very well the fear that
self-archiving
could lead to a "tipping point" which could cause
massive
disruption to the scholarly publishing system. Sandy
suggests
that, even without cancellations, it is possible that highly
profitable publishers could still decide to leave the
business.
If even a few of the large players were to leave the system,
Sandy argues, journals would have no where to go, as
university
presses such as Penn State do not have the resources to pick
up
all these journals.
The silver lining in this scenario: if even a few of the
large,
highly profitable publishers were to suddenly decide to go
into
another business - then libraries and universities would
have
plenty of cash left over from subscription budgets they
could no
longer spend , and this cash would then be available to help
scholars transition their journals, some through newly
resourced
university presses.
It is always possible, of course, that the few very highly
profitable publishers, continuing to enjoy high profits,
would
not exodus the scholarly publishing system en masse after
all.
For more detail, please see my blogpost, Transitioning to
Open
Access: Beyond Fear of Change, at: http://tinyurl.com/ygyspt
Sandy Thatcher's original post to Liblicense:
http://tinyurl.com/ynddnr
Welcome to Liblicense, Sandy!
Don't miss the First International PKP Scholarly Publishing
Conference
July 11 - 13, 2007, Vancouver, BC, Canada
http://ocs.sfu.ca/pkp2007/
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