Traditional versus Open Access Scholarly Journal Publishing: An Economic Perspective

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Frankland ◽  
Margaret A. Ray
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dave S. Ghamandi

This commentary examines political and economic aspects of open access (OA) and scholarly journal publishing. Through a discourse of critique, neoliberalism is analyzed as an ideology causing many problems in the scholarly journal publishing industry, including the serials crisis. Two major efforts in the open access movement that promote an increase in OA funded by article-processing charges (APC) —the Open Access 2020 (OA2020) and Pay It Forward (PIF) initiatives—are critiqued as neoliberal frameworks that would perpetuate existing systems of domination and exploitation. In a discourse of possibility, ways of building a post-neoliberal system of journal publishing using new tactics and strategies, merging theory and praxis, and grounding in solidarity and cooperation are presented. This includes organizing journal publishing democratically using cooperatives, which could decommodify knowledge and provide greater open access. The article concludes with a vision for a New Fair Deal, which would revolutionize the system of scholarly journal publishing by transitioning journals to library publishing cooperatives.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Camille Nous

Librarians have responded to the decades-long “serials crisis” with a common narrative and a range of responses that have failed to challenge the ideology and structures that caused it. Using Walter Rodney’s theory of a guerilla intellectual, we critically examine the dominant understanding of this so-called crisis and emphasize the role that capital plays within it. The imperial nature of scholarly journal publishing and some of its many contradictions are discussed. “Transformative” agreements receive special attention as a hyper-capitalist manifestation of these contradictions at the heart of commercial publishing.The politics of refusal are one response to the commercialism, prestige, and power imbalances that drive the academic publishing system. Highlighting the differences between refusal and reform, this paper explores the protagonistic role that librarians can play in a protracted struggle within and beyond the confines of our profession. Select open access efforts are identified at the end as examples of different forms of refusal. This paper is intended to move beyond the traditional discourse of laying blame solely at the feet of the academic publishing oligopoly and also expounds on the bourgeois academy’s use of knowledge production for capital accumulation.


PeerJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e4357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bo-Christer Björk

Mega-journals are a new kind of scholarly journal made possible by electronic publishing. They are open access (OA) and funded by charges, which authors pay for the publishing services. What distinguishes mega-journals from other OA journals is, in particular, a peer review focusing only on scientific trustworthiness. The journals can easily publish thousands of articles per year and there is no need to filter articles due to restricted slots in the publishing schedule. This study updates some earlier longitudinal studies of the evolution of mega-journals and their publication volumes. After very rapid growth in 2010–2013, the increase in overall article volumes has slowed down. Mega-journals are also increasingly dependent for sustained growth on Chinese authors, who now contribute 25% of all articles in such journals. There has also been an internal shift in market shares. PLOS ONE, which totally dominated mega-journal publishing in the early years, currently publishes around one-third of all articles. Scientific Reports has grown rapidly since 2014 and is now the biggest journal.


Author(s):  
Carlo Scollo Lavizzari

The legal developments in scholarly publishing began back at the time of the Guttenberg press. The scholarly journal publishing industry evolved over the centuries. The 1960s through the launch of the internet saw the industry explode with growth. With the advent and development of the digital journal, open access, and other clandestine illegal databases, it is essential that the industry work to protect its interests. This chapter will provide a history, overview, and developments that will be required to ensure the ongoing concerns of the industry.


Author(s):  
Lauren Halcomb-Smith ◽  
Alison Crump ◽  
Mela Sarkar

This chapter explores innovating in scholarly journal publishing through the lens of publishing as pedagogy, an approach where scholarly publishing practices are intentionally designed for learning. Scholarly publishing is described as a learning space with significant scope for innovating, with respect to both the scholarly publishing culture and its practices. Innovating in scholarly publishing is defined as a social, creative, disruptive, and intentional process. The critical intersections to innovating in scholarly publishing are considered and an example of what innovating in scholarly publishing can look like, in practice, is provided—by sharing personal reflections and experiences of conceptualizing, designing, and managing J-BILD, a scholarly journal. In exploring these intersections and the notion of innovating, an innovative model of publishing founded on the principles of open access, transparency, and collaboration is described. This chapter concludes with possibilities for future directions with respect to innovating in scholarly publishing.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document