> Now let's reintroduce the idea of open access.
Unfortunately,
> through what we might call a prism of misunderstanding,
open
> access has been seen as a great threat to the smaller
> publishers. My suggestion is that handled well it could
> actually provide a survival mechanism for them.
Society
> publishers and university presses have a number of
great
> advantages that could help them thrive in a
publication-charge
> open access journal environment - they often have
high-quality
> journals with excellent author services and they have
close
> connections with their communities (a bonus when
searching for
> referees).
This might be true if those small publishers were operating
in a
100% OA environment, and if the bigger publishers in that
environment have no ability (or incentive) to set their
author
charges at competitive rates. But if the environment is
something
less than 100% OA (and therefore includes
subscription-subsidized
journals) or if the environment includes publishers that can
afford to set their author charges competitively (and can
thereby
lure authors away from smaller publishers), it's hard to see
how
small publishers are going to benefit. The bottom line is
that
when you make it harder for small publishers to sell their
services, you make it harder for small publishers to stay in
business.
---
Rick Anderson
Assoc. Dir. for Scholarly Resources & Collections
Marriott Library
University of Utah
rick.anderson utah.edu
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