From: Ann Okerson <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:36:59 -0500
Early in Chapter 4, referenced below: "Most scholarly journals are
now sold in bundles, often through license agreements that contain
nondisclosure agreements, making the kind of per-journal comparison
done by Barschall very difficult."
A few comments about that sentence: (1) the list prices of the
journals are still available, without difficulty, so the comparison
could be done; (2) it is possible -- it takes time but we've done it
without much conceptual difficulty -- to use today's list price,
factor in annual contractual price caps, and calculate a revised
(generally lower) per title price that libraries are currently paying
within the bundle and to work from that corrected figure. To be sure,
with method (2), it would be more tme-consuming to do a title by title
comparison with Barschall's data. But, why exactly would one need to
do this, since today there is a variety of more granular methods
useful for establishing value for individual or bundled journals, for
a given library or consortium
Ann Okerson
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Heather Morrison <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:50:32 -0800
Anthony Watkinson wrote:
> What are scholar-led journals please?
Response: journals led by active scholars (as opposed to professional
not-for-profit or commercial publishers). These are often small
independent journals; many find online hosting and support services
through their libraries.
Edgar and Willinsky talk about the OJS phenonenom as a renaissance of
scholar led publishing in this article: Edgar, B. D., & Willinsky, J.
(2010) (In press). A survey of the scholarly journals using open
journal systems. Scholarly and Research Communication, Retrieved
August 27, 2011 from http://pkp.sfu.ca/node/2773
In brief, the free, open source Open Journal Systems developed by
Willinsky and colleagues in the Public Knowledge Project, is now used
by over 10 thousand journals all over the world, many of which are
smaller independent journals led by scholars. The group surveyed had
an average expenditure of $188 per article. A full flip to this system
would result in the greatest cost savings for libraries (over 90% of
current spend). The $2 million in savings for Iowa assumes a mixed
model, half of publishing in open access journals using OJS at $188
per article, and the other half using the article processing fee
approach with an average of $1,350 (the PLoS ONE fee).
If anyone is interested in more detail, please see chapter 4 of my
draft dissertation, The Economics of Scholarly Communication in
Transition:
http://pages.cmns.sfu.ca/heather-morrison/chapter-4-economics-of-scholarly-communication-in-transition/
There are some charts and graphs, so I like to think that it's easier
reading that one might guess from the title.
best,
Heather Morrison
The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics
http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com
|
