The 2019 Open Access Days (link in German language) (Twitter)
took place in Hannover between 30 September and 2 October 2019. We
report on some key topics relating to the financing of open access
transformation and to open educational resources.
With the topic of “business models”, session 3 was dedicated to one of
the key topics of the 2019 Open Access Days. Alternative business models
were presented and discussed against the backdrop of DEAL contracts and
the “author pays” model (APC model), which continues to be a central
point. The APC model receives lots of criticism because it continues to
lead to price increases and is not accepted in some disciplines. Thus,
there are now still very few renowned open access journals with APCs in
the humanities and social sciences. The DEAL contracts are also expected
to lead to a transformation of journals towards open access only in very few cases
(Flipping). Unless other countries with high publication figures
conclude comprehensive transformation agreements, most of the journals
from major publishers will remain subscription-based for the foreseeable
future.
Criticism of the transformation agreements was also expressed elsewhere
during the conference, in particular in the keynote speech “A success story? Open Access between collective action, (un)visible infrastructures and neoliberal transformations”
(link in German language, “Eine Erfolgsgeschichte? Open Access zwischen
kollektivem Handeln, (un-)sichtbaren Infrastrukturen und neoliberalen
Verwandlungen”) by Elena Šimukovič. She emphasised, for example, that
existing power relations and dependencies between major publishers and
research institutes will be consolidated. In addition, organisations
with high publication figures will disproportionately bear the costs in
future as a result of the orientation of the financing to the number of
publications. The fair distribution of these costs is an issue that is
currently being debated intensively (link in German language).
Against this backdrop, Anja Oberländer and Lena Dreher provided an overview of alternative business models
(link in German language). Institutional financing models were
presented, in which journals are often run by research institutes and
specialist companies on the basis of the open journal system.
Furthermore, crowdfunding and consortium financing play a more
significant role here. APCs are not collected with these models or taken
over by the financing organisations. In terms of crowdfunding models, “Subscribe to Open” and Knowledge Unlatched were presented.
The “subscribe to open” initiative, to which reference was already made in the opening keynote “Daring to Dream of Universal Open Access” by John Willinsky, is a model which is used for existing journal subscriptions by libraries:
A selection of journals for the Annual Reviews
will be transformed into open access journals, provided that all the
libraries simply renew their previous subscriptions. The revenues from
the subscriptions are used to finance open access journals. Consortium
financing includes the initiatives Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics
(SCOAP), Fair Open Access Alliance (FOAA) and the Open Library of Humanities
(OLH). These models often relate to specific disciplines and are based
on consortium payments by organisations, libraries, specialist
companies, foundations, and research funding bodies.
In the second presentation in this session “Beyond APC: Criteria for business models”
(link in German language, “Jenseits von APC: Kriterien für
Geschäftsmodelle”) by Ulrike Kändler and Marco Tullney, criteria for
involvement in alternative business models were analysed. In this
context, emphasis was placed on the importance of fair open access
conditions, cost transparency, clear financing regulations, and
participation rights for financing organisations. For libraries,
participation in financing models for open access will develop into a
key task according to a conclusion of the presentation.
In the third presentation of the session, Jochen Schirrwagen presented the results of an OpenAIRE workshop “How can we sustain open access publishing in a cooperative way?”
(link in German language), in which the focus was on the sustainability
of alternative business models. The key factors in the success of this
are said to include recognition by research funding bodies, the
evaluation of quality control by established infrastructures, such as
the DOAJ and OA2020, as well as intensive networking of the various initiatives. ... [mehr] https://www.zbw-mediatalk.eu/2019/11/2019-open-access-days-business-models-and-their-financial-impacts-for-open-access-transformation/
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