Scalability, Sustainability, Market Responsiveness and Mandates in OA | Dr. Martin Paul Eve | Senior Lecturer in Literature, Technology and Publishing

abernard102@gmail.com 2015-05-06

Summary:

"Academic publishers come in all shapes and sizes. Some are commercial, some are mission-driven, some are not-for-profit. This creates an interesting dynamic for a market. Not-for-profit publishers see themselves as partners of the academy, working alongside their academic colleagues to disseminate material. Indeed, some university presses are departments of universities. At the same time, though, commercial publishers talk in terms of market conditions. They are often unhappy about claimed market interference from research funders. The upshot of this is that these publishers want it both ways. They claim themselves as stakeholders who must be present at consultations among academics and libraries for the future of academic publishing while then claiming that these entities should not interfere in their market. This post, which represents early-stage thinking and is far from complete, begins to consider the ways in which academic publishing can be considered in market terms and the rationale for why, even under such neo-classical predicates, market interference might be justified. It does so primarily in terms of an emerging desire for open-access books. I dislike having to think in terms of markets and neo-classical economics. It is a limiting and often pernicious discourse. And yet, conversations with national-level funders and governments necessitate such thinking and there may sometimes be some truth in the strategies that emerge. The university sits within the market. University presses sit within the market. Commercial publishers sit within the market. For better or worse (the latter), this is a market space ..."

Link:

https://www.martineve.com/2015/05/04/scalability-sustainability-and-market-responsiveness-in-oa/

From feeds:

Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) ยป abernard102@gmail.com

Tags:

oa.new oa.comment oa.sustainability oa.books oa.publishers oa.business_models oa.libraries oa.librarians oa.publishing oa.up oa.economics_of

Date tagged:

05/06/2015, 12:01

Date published:

05/06/2015, 08:00