Social Justice in Scholarly Publishing: Open Access Is the Only Way

Ongoing debates surrounding Open Access to the scholarly literature are multifaceted and complicated by disparate and often polarised viewpoints from engaged stakeholders. At the current stage, Open Access has become such a global issue that it is critical for all involved in scholarly publishing, including policymakers, publishers, research funders, governments, learned societies, librarians, and academic communities, to be well-informed on the history, benefits, and pitfalls of Open Access. In spite of this, there is a general lack of consensus regarding the potential pros and cons of Open Access at multiple levels. This review aims to be a resource for current knowledge on the impacts of Open Access by synthesizing important research in three major areas: academic, economic and societal. While there is clearly much scope for additional research, several key trends are identified, including a broad citation advantage for researchers who publish openly, as well as additional benefits to the non-academic dissemination of their work. The economic impact of Open Access is less well-understood, although it is clear that access to the research literature is key for innovative enterprises, and a range of governmental and non-governmental services. Furthermore, Open Access has the potential to save both publishers and research funders considerable amounts of financial resources, and can provide some economic benefits to traditionally subscription-based journals. The societal impact of Open Access is strong, in particular for advancing citizen science initiatives, and leveling the playing field for researchers in developing countries. Open Access supersedes all potential alternative modes of access to the scholarly literature through enabling unrestricted re-use, and long-term stability independent of financial constraints of traditional publishers that impede knowledge sharing. However, Open Access has the potential to become unsustainable for research communities if high-cost options are allowed to continue to prevail in a widely unregulated scholarly publishing market. Open Access remains only one of the multiple challenges that the scholarly publishing system is currently facing. Yet, it provides one foundation for increasing engagement with researchers regarding ethical standards of publishing and the broader implications of 'Open Research'.

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In the News

College & Research Libraries News ◽

10.5860/crln.81.6.265 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 81 (6) ◽

pp. 265

Author(s):

David Free

Keyword(s):

Machine Learning ◽

Social Justice ◽

Open Access ◽

Learning Analytics ◽

Streaming Media ◽

Research Data ◽

Review Committee ◽

Data Services ◽

Systems Learning ◽

Digital Pedagogy

Welcome to the June 2020 issue of C&RL News. Every two years, ACRL’s Research Planning and Review Committee produces their “Top trends in academic libraries.” The 2020 edition discusses change management; evolving integrated library systems; learning analytics; machine learning and AI; the state of open access and research data services; social justice, critical librarianship, and critical digital pedagogy; streaming media; and student wellbeing. Many thanks to the committee for pulling together this important survey of the current landscape of academic and research librarianship.

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Open Access in Scholarly Publishing: Embracing Principles and Avoiding Pitfalls

The Serials Librarian ◽

10.1080/0361526x.2015.1036197 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 69 (1) ◽

pp. 58-69 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Michele Myatt Quinn

Keyword(s):

Open Access ◽

Scholarly Publishing

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Social justice in library science programs: A content analysis approach

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science ◽

10.1177/0961000620904432 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 52 (4) ◽

pp. 1102-1109

Author(s):

Rhiannon Jones

Keyword(s):

Social Justice ◽

Content Analysis ◽

Open Access ◽

Information Science ◽

Mission Statements ◽

Library Science ◽

Library And Information Science ◽

Promotional Materials ◽

Science Educators ◽

Globalized World

In an increasingly globalized world, social justice issues dominate the news. Libraries are often viewed as places where social justice ideals are upheld and promoted. This paper uses a content analysis methodology of 10 North American library and information science program websites to discover how social justice education is marketed to potential students through an examination of open access course descriptions, mission statements, and core learning objectives where available. Findings indicate that social justice is embedded in library and information science programs, but there are limited opportunities for prospective students to seek out these courses due to a lack of open access course descriptions and mission statements and shortage of integration in required courses. If library and information science educators want to attract future librarians with strong social justice agendas, then the promotional materials will need to be more explicit in regards to how these programs can aid students in building a social justice mindset.

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Advancing scholarly publishing through open access biomedical repositories: A knowledge management perspective

IFLA Journal ◽

10.1177/0340035219846139 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 45 (3) ◽

pp. 233-245 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Lisa Kruesi ◽

Kerry Tanner ◽

Frada Burstein

Keyword(s):

Knowledge Management ◽

Open Access ◽

Role Model ◽

Research Output ◽

Research Data ◽

Scholarly Publishing ◽

Pubmed Central ◽

The Past ◽

Management Perspective ◽

The Us

Scholarly publishing has undergone major changes over the past 50 years. Funder mandates and organisational reporting obligations have heralded the creation of open access repositories, such as institutional and subject repositories. This research draws upon the US PubMed Central (PMC) and Europe PMC, also known as PMC International, as a role model to inform the concept and opportunity for an Australasia open access biomedical repository. PMC International is a leader in making citations and research output, which link to research data, Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR). As repositories approach two decades of development, this paper reports on the potential for an Australasia open access biomedical repository through a knowledge management lens and explores the opportunities for future open access biomedical repositories.

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Using a Tetradic Network Technique and a Transaction Cost Economic Analysis to illustrate an economic model for an open access medical journal

First Monday ◽

10.5210/fm.v12i10.1964 ◽

2007 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Michael D. Mills ◽

Robert J. Esterhay ◽

Judah Thornewill

Keyword(s):

Medical Journal ◽

Open Access ◽

Medical Physics ◽

Open Access Journal ◽

Scholarly Publishing ◽

Production Costs ◽

Transaction Cost Economic ◽

Scientific Societies ◽

Online Journal ◽

The Cost

There is a crisis in scholarly publishing. The value of the scholarly information is frequently much less than the cost of providing that information. Consequently, libraries are suffering and scholars do not have access to information that they need. However, certain for-profit publishers and scientific societies are benefiting substantially from the current system. The Internet has demonstrated the potential to change this structure. The Budapest, Berlin and Bethesda initiatives show there is significant worldwide interest to replace the current controlled system with one that allows open access of scholarly information to anyone with Internet access. An examination of the scholarly publishing process is offered using a Tetradic Network Technique (TNT) and a Transaction Cost Economic (TCE) analysis as applied to a traditional subscription-based, print medical journal, Medical Physics, and a Web-based, open access medical journal, the Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics. The analysis identifies stakeholders and considers transaction and production costs. TCE analysis is performed between each of the following: Libraries, Scholars, Publishers and Societies, for a total of six transaction exchanges for both the traditional and the open access journal. This analysis allows costs to be compared more easily between the two types of journals, and provides the basis for a model online journal pro forma. Results demonstrate that while production costs remain approximately equivalent for the traditional and open access journal, total transaction costs are reduced by a factor of between 5 and 10 for the open access journal. While the cost of producing an eight-page article in a traditional medical journal is approximately US$2500, the cost of publishing the same article in an open access journal is less than US$500. Recommendations are offered that illustrate how an open access online journal may be produced by a university for approximately the cost of several library print journal subscriptions and physical storage of the printed material. Universities may therefore benefit through greater involvement with the scholarly publishing process. There are several considerations and recommendations that one may draw from this investigation. Universities pay for scholarly research, and then pay again to obtain access to published results. University libraries, always a significant cost center, are now in financial crisis. Scientific societies and large publishers gain under the traditional scholarly publication model. The copyright is essential; the one that holds the copyright holds the power in scholarly publishing. Modern open access initiatives state that scholars should retain copyright and publish online. Universities should require promotion and tenure committees to give equal weight to open access publications. Universities should go into the publishing business with scientific societies and control dissemination of scholarly knowledge for the public good.

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The impact of the open access movement on medical based scholarly publishing in Nigeria

First Monday ◽

10.5210/fm.v12i10.1957 ◽

2007 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Alasia Datonye Dennis

Keyword(s):

Open Access ◽

Developing World ◽

Scholarly Publishing ◽

Global Distribution ◽

Scholarly Research ◽

Medical Journals ◽

Current State ◽

Scholarly Publications ◽

The Impact

The open access movement and its initiatives -- which advocate a shift from predominant print-based publication to electronic and Internet sources -- is expected to improve the global distribution of scholarly research and impact positively on the current state of scholarly publications in the developing world. This review examines the current state of medical journals in Nigeria and assesses the impact of the open access movement and its initiatives on medical scholarly publishing in Nigeria. The resulting appraisal shows that open access initiatives have impacted positively on medical scholarly publishing in Nigeria, with the African Journals Online and the African Index Medicus projects being the most significant influences. There are enormous prospects for further developing medical scholarly publishing in Nigeria using open access initiatives; these opportunities should be exploited and developed.

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