Fred Friend, Briefing paper on Open Access Business Models

Undated but 2011. Discusses OA business models for institutional repositories, disciplinary repositories, journals, data, and books. From the executive summary: "[I]n this document the description of each type of open access business model includes the factors which will determine the cost incurred in providing open access, the factors likely to be important in adopting the model, and a summary of the strengths and weaknesses of each open access model from the perspective of research funding agencies and institutions managing the funding of research dissemination. Most of the document relates to research outputs in the form of journal articles but brief descriptions are given of factors important in open access to research data and research monographs....Private funding may provide partial support for some open access models (e.g. if an author pays for the cost of publishing in an open access journal) but no open access model can survive on private funding alone. In this respect open access business models are no different from the current subscription or licensing business models for academic journals, as the publishers of the journals are also dependent upon the purchase of subscriptions or licences by publicly-funded libraries. The factor distinguishing open access business models from subscription or licensing business models is the higher level of benefit from open access in relation to the cost to the taxpayer....This study illustrates the considerable variety of business models within a common framework of public funding....Any open access business model contains elements which cannot be measured in monetary terms. In particular the impact of open access to research outputs can be described but cannot always be quantified. The social benefits of open access, for example, cannot be itemised in a financial spread-sheet but should be seen as part of the business model, in that open access to research and teaching outputs brings benefits to previously disenfranchised individuals and communities. The identification of these benefits, even if numbers cannot be attached to them, should be an important feature of a business model for the public sector funding of open access. Another element which is difficult to measure in monetary terms is the degree to which a particular business model allows the authors, their institutions, or the funders of the content made accessible to remain in control of that content....[T]he extent to which usage rights and re-use rights provide benefits beyond financial benefits should be identified in any open access business model....Any one of the three principal structures for providing open access to publicly-funded research outputs – institutional repositories, subject repositories or open access journals – has the potential to deliver a sustainable service...."