The economics of open access publishing Bo-Christer Björk UNICA seminar Helsinki 19.5.2006
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The economics of open access publishing
Bo-Christer Björk
UNICA seminar Helsinki 19.5.2006
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Effects of Internet
• Distribution is going electronic• Also distribution models are changing
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Where to draw the line?
• Which process• Using what business model• What type of cost• Is cost equal to price?• Cost incurred by whom?
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Which processManuscript
Reviewers' comments
Revised manuscript
Accepted manuscript
SubscriptionAcquire
access rights
Review manuscript
Revise manuscript
Make journal availableinside university
Queue for publishing
Search forand retrieve
article
Publish article in journal issue
Read article
Publish article on the web
Index article
Index web source
Author charge
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Using what business model
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What type of cost
• First copy cost• Distribution costs• Overhead costs of publisher• Time costs of readers• Opportunity costs
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is cost equal to price?
• Publisher revenue = cost + profit• In the short run yes• In the long run more competition could
lower costs• Example mobile telephone bills
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Cost incurred by whom
• Cost of publisher• Cost of readers• Overhead cost of libraries• Cost of reviewers time
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Getting the numbers right
• Number of titles• Number of articles• Share electronic• OA journals share• OA articles share• OA copies in
repositories, web pages etc.
• 25000 – 50000• 1, 5 – 2 million• > 50 %• 4-5 %• 1-2 %• 15-20 %
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Comparative effects of different business models
Reviewing Publi-cation
Indexing& Library services
Usage Preser-vation
Impact on research
Direct Impact on industry
Paper = = = = = = =
Electronic = ?
Repository Open Access
= ?
Journal Open Access
= ?
Life-cycle costsof current readership level
Benefits from increased readership
OA
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The free rider problem
• Has been proposed as argument against author charges
• Some research intensive institutes might end up paying more than currently
• Lesser institutes and industry would get a free rid
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But!
• The argument can be turned around• Only a small proportion of subscription
money comes from the free riders anyway
• It would be socially beneficial if these parties would start to use research results more
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”Level playing field”
Individual article
Journal Journal collection
Readers buying
access
Author Pay-per view Personal subscription
University Institutional subscription
”Big deal”
Research Funder
National level Consortial big deal
Authors buying
OA provision
Author Author charge
University Institutional membership
Research Funder ”Wellcome Trust”
National level FinELib & Biomed Central deal
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REFERENCES
For a number of publications seeHomepages of the OACS projecthttp://www.oacs.shh.fi/publications.html