Point of View
POINT OF VIEW
The Open Access market is growing, but sustainable models remain a challenge
WORDS Rob Johnson
Foundation. Dirk Pieper, deput director of Biele- feld Universit Library, says: “Aſter publishing our APC cost and bibliographic as open data, the logical next step was to open this up for other institutions.” Today, Open APC captures more than €43m in publication fees spending from 71 research perform- ing institutions and research funders in Europe and North America. Pieper believes the size of the data set helps libraries drive price and cost transparency in the developing OA market.
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HANGE CREATES OPPORTUNITY, and there’s no doubt that Open Access (OA) represents a major change for scholarly publishers. However, pinpointing the opportunities it creates is harder than it first appears. Deni Auclair, chief financial officer and senior analyst at consulting firm Delta Think, estimates that the OA market is growing at 10%–15% a year, and represents some- where between 3%–6% of the total academic journals market, but actionable data for individual players oſten remains elusive. Big publishers have research groups of two or three people working solely on the OA market, notes Auclair. Small wonder, then, that others may struggle to carve out a niche. However, there are ways to do it:
Find a variable business model Article publication charges (APCs) have become the favoured business model for OA journals, but demand from authors remains muted in many disciplines, and funders are keen to keep prices low. As a result, the majorit of subscription publishers are still taking a conservative approach to adoption of OA models. “What’s really needed is a process- driven approach,” Auclair says.
Set a price point
Publishers developing an OA offer need to set headline APC prices and consider what discounts to offer. These might be based on author member- ships, national or institutional affiliations, offset- ting arrangements, or a whole range of other factors. Meanwhile, there are growing concerns that OA could simply replace financial barriers to readership with similar barriers to publication, particularly for authors in the developing world.
Meet institutional demands Publishers must also be prepared to meet the grow- ing demand for data from institutions and funders. The Open APC initiative grew out of a local require- ment at Bielefeld Universit, Germany, to efficiently report APC spending to the German Research
Take a data-driven approach Without good systems, APC pricing can become a black box, with a high chance of error and dissat- isfied customers. While some publishers choose to develop in-house solutions, others are partnering with third-part vendors to develop data-driven workflows. Manuscript submission systems such as Clarivate Analytics’ ScholarOne and Aries Editorial Manager are evolving to capture crucial metadata at the point of submission. By leveraging partnerships, publishers of all sizes can implement a scalable solu- tion to support their internal needs, as well as those of their customers.
Hide the wiring
Until data-driven approaches become the norm, there remains too much reliance on authors to navi- gate complex payment processes. Indeed, Pieper argues that inefficient workflows on the side of both publishers and libraries are significantly constrain- ing further growth in OA. He expects European libraries to offer an “Open Access clearing centre” in future, managing payment and bibliographical services on behalf of their authors.
Look to the future Views differ on the rate at which OA will grow, but no one doubts that it is here to stay. Publishers need to develop a sound understanding of the OA market, implement transparent and sustainable pricing strat- egies, and adopt data-driven workflows, all of which takes time. However, Pieper points to the growth of pirate websites such as Sci-Hub as a harbinger of more rapid change. “We are learning that research does not stop if we lose access to research articles, [what] happens is Sci-Hub becomes even more popular. If traditional publishers want to earn money from publishing in the future, they must hurry.” ×
Rob Johnson is the founder and director, research consulting of the Copyright Clearance Center
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14th March 2017
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