From: Kathleen Shearer <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2018 12:01:26 -0600

<Of possible interest - sorry for the cross posting>


Today, a new journal in mathematics was launched by Timothy Gowers and Dan
Kral. The journal, called ‘Advances in Combinatorics
<https://advances-in-combinatorics.scholasticahq.com/>’, is an overlay
journal, built entirely on articles contained in the arXiv repository. It
is free to read and will not charge authors to publish. The relatively low
costs of running the journal are being covered by Queen’s University
Library in Ontario, Canada, which is also providing administrative support.

COAR <http://www.coar-repositories.org> and Queen’s University Library were
very keen to participate in the launch of this journal as it offers a model
of overlay services on top of repositories, a model that could eventually
be generalized beyond arXiv. “This aligns really well with our vision for
next generation repositories”, says Kathleen Shearer, executive director of
the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR), “on top of which we
can build services such as peer review”.

According to the journal’s founder <https://gowers.wordpress.com/>, Timothy
Gowers, research professor at the University of Cambridge, ‘Advances in
Combinatorics’ was created in order to “give people the option... to submit
to a journal that is not complicit in a system that uses its monopoly power
to ruthlessly squeeze library budgets”.

The extreme profit seeking of some of the commercial publishers (it has
been reported
<https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/elseviers-profits-swell-more-ps900-million>
that Elsevier made profits of approximately $1.2 billion US dollars in
2017) is stretching library budgets to the limit. In addition, it has
created significant barriers in access to research and -with the advent of
article processing charges (APCs)- it is exacerbating inequalities in
researchers' ability to publish.

Martha Whitehead, vice-provost (digital planning) and university librarian
at Queen’s University says, “As libraries, we need to nurture and invest in
new models that will contribute to a more sustainable and inclusive system
for research communications. We are delighted to be able to support this
innovative approach to journal publishing.”

The journal plans to set a high bar for acceptance. Currently there are no
non-commercial publishing venues that cater for combinatorics articles at
the level envisaged. The aim is to offer an ethical alternative by
launching a journal that publishes high quality papers, but does not charge
publishing fees or for subscriptions.

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Kathleen Shearer
Executive Director, Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR)
[log in to unmask] - +1 514 992 9068
Skype: kathleen.shearer2 - twitter: @KathleeShearer
www.coar-repositories.org