Are there alternatives to traditional academic publishing models ? #OA | Allegra

"On July 17th 2012, the European Commission released a recommendation encouraging all member countries of the European Union to take measures to provide free-of-charge and open access to journals publishing publicly funded scientific research after an embargo period of no more than 6 to 12 months (period during which access to academic journals is restricted for non-subscribers and/or individuals who have access through their institutions. This measure aims to protect publishers’ revenues.) A subsequent study released in July 2015 was conducted by the Institut des Politiques Publiques (IPP) for the Ministry of Higher Education and Research. Its results led the IPP to propose a measure consisting of reducing that embargo period in order to increase the circulation of scientific research publications. This study did not, however, discuss the costs of this type of open access policy. Cairn.info, the online platform circulating most of the French-language humanities and social science (HSS) journals, in partnership with IDATE, thus took on the task to fill this gap. In a study published earlier this month, they expose the potential consequences of the IPP measure in relation to the economic viability of these journals. Due to the budget cuts, university libraries have reduced their acquisitions of and subscriptions to scientific journals. Unsurprisingly, this has had a similarly negative impact on the revenues of these journals. In addition to the struggles of digital revenues to compensate for the decline in hardcopy revenues, HSS journals are already in a very fragile state. Reducing the embargo period, as proposed by the IPP, would weaken the economy of HSS journals even further, the study says. The authors of the Cairn.info/IDATE study fear the demise of a large number of HSS publications or a loss of quality of the content they offer ..."