Open Access: A Publisher‘s Perspective

James Mercer

Licensing Manager ANZ

October 21, 2010

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Springer is a…..

•Leading commercial academic publisher Largest output of STM books (3,959 English titles in 2009)

2nd largest output of STM subscription journals (>1,700 English titles in 2010)

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Brief History of Springer and Open Access

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“Springer is now

the world’s largest

open access

publisher” Peter Suber in October 2008

So as of 2008…..

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What the dickens is….

•A sales rep talking about OA for?

•A large commercial academic publisher of subscription journals doing becoming the largest OA publisher?

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Why offer open access?

•Core competencies of a publisher – editorial process, peer review, production, dissemination, promotion – all need to be performed in OA world (‘gold’ OA at least). Makes sense for an experienced publisher to carry them out.

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There is growing demand.Open access to research output is becoming mandatory

Open access mandates

Source: http://www.openscholarship.org/jcms/c_6226/open-access-policies-for-universities-and-research-institutions?hlText=policies

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Growing demand further evidenced by growth in fully open access journals

Source: http://www.doaj.org/

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Subscription cake Gold OA cake

There is a commercial opportunity

Can I have

a piece

of this too

please?Mmm!

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Pragmatic and community considerations

“We are… a business that must supply its market with not only the products it wants, but also in the format that it wants” Derk Haank, CEO Springer

“It showed that Springer had a certain openness, a certain willingness to experiment – something that I believe should be central to a company that essentially publishes experiments.” Derk Haank, CEO Springer

Source http://www.springer.com/societies/society+zone?SGWID=0-173202-12-489299-0

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Two routes to open access

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A) Hybrid journals

B) Fully open access journals

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Springer pioneered the hybrid journal launching

Springer Open Choice in 2004

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Springer Open Choice

What is it, exactly?

•An offer to authors and their funders to have their accepted articles published with immediate full open access (except commercial use)

• In (almost) any of Springer’s journals (1700 titles)

• For $3000 or EUR2000 per article

• Relevant OA articles are automatically deposited in PMC

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Institutional experiments

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Price adjustments for selected hybrid journals

9% discount on 31

journals

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Springer Open Choice experiments with libraries

Pro:

• Liaise with the customer we know

• Keep the current money streams and financing system intact (good for us and the library)

• Safe guards current subscription income, (temporarily) loosens price pressure on subscription deals

• Puts us ahead of competition, attracts authors of respected institutes – increases share of authors

Con:

• We put pressure on the system ourselves (stimulate demand)

• Unclear end-picture, not without risk

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Springer Open Choice Issues

• Hybrid arrangements create problems for budgeting and forecasting for Springer and customers

• Still a perception of ‘double dipping’

• Publication charges include the risk of lost current revenue.

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A) Hybrid journals

B) Fully open access journals

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•New suite of open access journals which will cover all disciplines

–12 announced at launch, 25 by early 2011

•All articles are fully and immediately open access

Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY)

•No subscriptions,

article processing fees instead

–Paid by the author (via research grant, library, institutional OA fund, …)

–Paid by a member institution

–Waivers in cases of economic hardship

–Invitation waivers for EICs

What is ?

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What is open access?

Open Access = Free access + Re-use

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Combine Springer and BioMed Central Expertise

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346 members in 39 countries!http://www.biomedcentral.com/inst/

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Comparing Open Choice and SpringerOpen

Open Choice journals

SpringerOpen journals

Subscription required? Yes No

How many articles are open access?

Some articles. The author can publish open access

All articles. The author must publish open access

Open access fee? 2000 EUR 800 – 1,300 EUR

How many? ~ 1200 Announced: 12End of the year: 25

Who sells what? Springer sales colleagues sell subscription licenses

BMC sales colleagues sell memberships

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Open Access at Springer

Hybrid Open Access

• Open Access option

in majority of

Springer titles

• Open Choice for

individual authors:

Article fee

€ 2000/ USD $ 3000

• Experimental

agreements with

institutions

Fully Open Access

• 13 Springer Open

Access titles

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Authors’ Rights

• Self-archiving of

author’s accepted

version

• Deposit into PubMed

Central, etc

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Springer is involved in the discussions

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Questions

?Usage? Citations?

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Thank you!

james.mercer@springer.com

springer.com/openaccess

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AuthorsFigure 23: Percent of faculty responding “very important” to the question “When it comes to influencing your decisions about journals in which to publish an article of yours, how important is each of the following characteristics?” in 2003, 2006, and 2009

80%+ Widely circulated and well read by scholars in your field

55% / 35% / 40% Makes article available freely

http://www.ithaka.org/ithaka-s-r/research/faculty-surveys-2000-2009/Faculty%20Study%202009.pdf

Usage? Citations?