Democratizing Academic Journals: White Paper zum wissenschaftlichen Publizieren erschienen

Anfang des Monats erschien ein von scholastica erstelltes White Paper zum wissenschaftlichen Publizieren mit dem Titel Democratizing Academic Journals : Technology, Services, and Open Access.nnAls Appetitmacher sei an dieser Stelle die Einführung wiedergegeben:nn“Open access for the reader doesn’t guarantee cheaper access fees for the academy. It’s time for a 21st century upending of the exorbitantly expensive corporate journal publishing system in order to give academics freedom to choose where to publish their articles and how much it should cost. Today, five corporate publishers control a majority market share of academic journals. Consequently, they control production, distribution, impact measures, and, most importantly, pricing. For years, the academic community has been trying to work with publishers to lower skyrocketing journal costs. However, the centralization of journals into fewer hands has created substantial power differentials between academic institutions and corporate publishers in journal price negotiations. Given the opposing incentives of academic institutions and corporate publishers – academia seeks to make research accessible while publishers seek profit – attempting to cut costs has proven a virtual zero-sum game.nn

This white paper delves into:

nn

    n

  • The past and present state of journal publishing
  • n

  • Current alternatives to the corporate publisher model
  • n

  • Steps to realize sustainable, open access-friendly journal models of the future
  • n

nn

This paper argues democratization of journal publishing is the key to lowering journal production costs and facilitating OA. Members of the academic community, either at established not-for-profit organizations or through informal groups of editors and advocates, must break up the corporate publisher conglomerate by taking control of journals and developing funding, access, and distribution models that work for their disciplines. This paper explores how widespread adoption of publishing services rather than carte blanche outsourcing of publishing will allow journals to affordably and sustainably publish on their own.“

nn nnDas sechzehnseitige Papier kann hier heruntergeladen werden.