Open Access Publishing in Musicology: A Roundtable

Abstract:  Open access publishing holds the promise of removing obstacles for readers, enhancing the public profile of scholars, facilitating digital humanities, making scholarship more transparent, and increasing engagement beyond the discipline. Although specific publication venues and models are achieving these goals and serving musicologists well, there nonetheless remain misconceptions and concerns about open access publications, their funding, editorial and review processes, equity, value in tenure and promotion evaluation, permanence, and sustainability. This roundtable discussion will bring together presenters with an array of experiences related to open access publishing including authors, journal editors, librarians, digital humanities professionals, university press editors, and music program administrators. The roundtable will open with a summary of findings from interviews with music scholars about open access publishing, outlining intersections between open access and such varied considerations as employment status and affiliation, tenure and promotion, public scholarship, digital humanities, open science. Other ideas under consideration include the association of open access with pedagogy, society support for open access, and funding models for open access articles and monographs. The roundtable participants include a co-founder of the journal Open Access Musicology; an associate dean for academic affairs within a school of music; librarians who have studied "Music Scholars and Open Access Publishing," musicologists who have participated in and facilitated open peer review; and a digital scholarship strategist who is also an editor of digital and print scholarly editions. Presenters will respond to interview findings, sharing their expertise and experience as it relates to the complexities of open access publishing. Attendees will be invited to pose questions and share their experiences.