Check It Out With Michael Kelley: Open Access Publishing

"Can a group of libraries help to pioneer a new path in academic publishing? That’s the hope of library directors from the Oberlin Group, an organization comprising 80 top liberal arts colleges, which is actively exploring ways to encourage the publishing of short-form, open-access scholarly monographs, including possibly launching an open-access publishing house for the humanities and social sciences later this year.  In March, the group’s Lever Initiative, led by a seven-member task force of librarians and London-based TCI Communications, published a report on the first phase of its plan, essentially an environmental scan of scholarly monograph publishing. The scan incorporated surveys of Oberlin College faculty, as well as workshops with 50 library directors, and interviews with provosts and research staff ... According to the report, librarians consider the current model of scholarly publishing, particularly for monographs, inherently flawed, if not altogether broken. The lifeblood of academic publishing for decades, monographs are too inaccessible, too costly, and too focused on tenure and promotion, the librarians say. In addition, the report touches on what’s been called the monograph crisis—evidence that the growth of large consortia deals for electronic journals and resources has diverted library funds away from research monographs. This has led to a vicious circle in which publishers’ prices for monographs must rise since they sell fewer copies, further complicating collection development at libraries ... But one of the main challenges to realizing that goal is fundamental: convincing faculty members of the need for change. While 83% of the 626 Oberlin faculty respondents surveyed for the report said they would at least consider publishing with such a venture, most said they are satisfied with the current system of scholarly publishing. For humanities and social science faculty, the prestige of the publisher remains the most important factor when authors decide where to publish. Without the essential support of faculty, 'a new initiative would likely fail,' according to the report ... In fact, the Lever report reveals some discontent with the current scholarly publishing system, primarily with editorial quality, distribution, remuneration, and the price of books ..."