OA-Takeaways: Ein Blick in die nun Open Access erscheinende Zeitschrift für empirische Kulturwissenschaft - Open Access Brandenburg

As I recently discovered, ironically enough, at the journal display of the library of the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences, the Journal of Empirical Cultural Studies published by Waxmann-Verlag has ventured the step towards Open Access. And in its issue 1/2 2022, the journal organizes this move very nicely with an "Open Access Forum".

There, for example, Melanie Völker and Beate Plugge from Waxmann-Verlag explain challenges for publishers that, as expected, become apparent in the financing of OA publications. They are critical of more established funding models such as Article Processing Charges (APC) and national licenses because, on the one hand, APC reproduce inequalities and, on the other hand, national licenses tie up acquisition funds in libraries to a great extent, "which means that only limited funds are available for further OA publications or even the acquisition of e-books from independent publishers." (p. 137) DEAL exacerbates the situation for these publishers and the publishers, as the latter are required to publish OA with the houses with which the contracts were signed. The authors prefer another variant: "Crowdfunding or discipline-oriented [...] or institutional funding models are, in our opinion, the better alternative." (ibid.)