Yes, that could work although I see some difficulties with universities interposing themselves between the e-publisher and the funding bodies (bureaucracy, changes in editors and very diverse editorial board composition, different resource availability as between universities both within countries and particularly internationally, unies charging exorbitant overhead costs, that sort of thing). The option that I've been thinking about but haven't had a chance to even pilot is to have OA journals treated as with any "subscription" journal i.e. where a library would "subscribe" and pay a fee for the subscription -- the subscription list would, as now be drawn up by the existing processes but presumably by faculty members. Libraries could divert some of the funds that they would save through un-subbing from some of the existing outrageously priced journals and transfer that to the OA journal subscription fund. Of course, I can see a lot of practical difficulties with this approach but any journal, OA or otherwise, has to/should have an extended user base/fan club of faculty and student supporters (if not they are essentially vanity presses I would think) and these then become the lobby group to ensure that some of the library's subscription funds go to the various OA journals to ensure their continuity/survival. Comments? (BTW, I've run this by the JoCI Editorial Board and they like it and in some cases have approached their uni libraries with the proposal, only to be rebuffed on the basis that there are no available funds for this kind of thing. A concerted effort through, for example to/through one or another national research funding body could establish some useful precedents, (perhaps there are already some examples) and then who knows... M -----Original Message----- From: Mathieu ONeil [mailto:mathieu.oneil@anu.edu.au] Sent: Friday, December 13, 2013 8:03 AM To: michael gurstein; air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: RE: [Air-L] Elsevier and academia.edu Hi Michael I suppose the advantage of commercial publishers for funding bodies is that they constitute a legal and stable partner for entering into contractual exchange, as opposed to researcher-run peer reviewed journals like the ones you and I are involved in. This is why I think universities could perhaps act as an honest broker between funding bodies and "green" open access journals (to use the approved term) in order to channel support either in-kind (by employing proofreaders etc) or in cash...? cheers Mathieu ________________________________________ From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] on behalf of michael gurstein [gurstein@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, December 13, 2013 11:52 To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-L] Elsevier and academia.edu Just to say that funding for Open Access journals is a real issue. I'm the EiC of the double blind peer reviewed Journal of Community Informatics <http://ci-journal.net/> . We are now in our tenth year and have had roughly 1.1 million discrete article downloads <http://ci-journal.net/reports/> since 2006 (when the counter was restarted). We have looked at various business/funding models over the years but haven't come up with anything workable. The actual out-of-pocket expenses are fairly modest but when you start putting price tags on various of the elements of the publishing process (outside of those normally provided for free by academic contributors) such as editing, proof reading and layout the price tag rises quite steeply to the $40-50K per year range. A lot of journals that were started in the first flush of open access (and particularly open access supporting software such as OJS <http://pkp.sfu.ca/ojs/> on which we operate) are now approaching their founder/editor burnout period and on-going survival will very much depend on finding at least some degree of funding/some workable business model. M Michael Gurstein, Ph.D. Editor in Chief: Journal of Community Informatics web: <http://ci-journal.net> http://ci-journal.net email: gurstein@gmail.com -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Mathieu ONeil Sent: Friday, December 13, 2013 7:15 AM To: Deborah Lupton Cc: <air-l@listserv.aoir.org> Subject: Re: [Air-L] Elsevier and academia.edu Hi Deborah, all That's a really good point but it begs the question: how exactly do these funding bodies define "[providing] funds for the open access publishing of materials produced from research they fund"? Does this mean setting aside extra money to pay for so-called "open access" from the likes of Elsevier (at the tune of $2-3,000 per article...). Or does this mean supporting the open sourcing of research by new means? If the former (which is much easier: just set aside this amount) then it is not really addressing the exploitative nature of the research community / commercial publisher relationship. cheers, Mathieu ________________________________________ From: <mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org> air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] on behalf of Deborah Lupton [deborah.lupton@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, December 13, 2013 7:18 To: nickjan Cc: < <mailto:air-l@listserv.aoir.org> air-l@listserv.aoir.org> Subject: Re: [Air-L] Elsevier and academia.edu As I'm sure discussants in Australia know, research funding bodies in Australia have also begun to mandate and provide funds for the open access publishing of materials produced from research they fund, including the two major funding bodies. This has begun to change the culture in universities here concerning open access. My university held at least two forums on open access publishing this year in the attempt to inform academics about the ins-and-outs of OA. Deborah On Thu, Dec 12, 2013 at 9:20 PM, nickjan < <mailto:nickjan@xs4all.nl> nickjan@xs4all.nl> wrote:
All:
The Scholarly Kitchen (collective blog for the Society for Scholarly
Publishing) has just posted an insightful analysis of the Elsevier -
Academia.edu saga, entitled "The End of an Era for Academia.edu and
Other Academic Networks?" Available at:
<http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2013/12/11/has-> http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2013/12/11/has-
elsevier-signaled-a-new-era-for-academia-edu-and-other-
professional-networks/
As pointed out in the post, many of the comments to a recent article
in The Chronicle of Higher Education ( <http://chronicle.com/blogs/> http://chronicle.com/blogs/
wiredcampus/posting-your-latest-article-you-might-have-
to-take-it-down/48865) are particularly astute....
Nick Jankowski
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-- Deborah Lupton Currently Senior Principal Research Fellow (Professor) Department of Sociology and Social Policy University of Sydney *From 10 February 2014: Centenary Research Professor* *Faculty of Arts and Design, University of Canberra* *New books*: *Medicine as Culture* (3rd revised edition, Sage, 2012); *Fat*(Routledge, 2012); *Risk* (2nd revised edition, Routledge, 2013); *The Social Worlds of the Unborn* (2013, Palgrave Macmillan); *The Unborn Human* (edited) (2013, Open Humanities Press). Currently working on *Digital Sociology* (forthcoming, Routledge). I blog at 'This Sociological Life'< <http://simplysociology.wordpress.com> http://simplysociology.wordpress.com> and Tweet @DALupton. _______________________________________________ The <mailto:Air-L@listserv.aoir.org> Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers <http://aoir.org> http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: <http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org> http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: <http://www.aoir.org/> http://www.aoir.org/ _______________________________________________ The <mailto:Air-L@listserv.aoir.org> Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers <http://aoir.org> http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: <http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org> http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: <http://www.aoir.org/> http://www.aoir.org/ _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/