Insights into the Economy of Open Scholarship: A look into OpenEdition with Pierre Mounier, deputy director

"OpenEdition is supported financially by the four founding institutions (CNRS [French National Centre for Scientific Research], Aix-Marseille University, EHESS [School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences], Avignon University), which provide the platform with staff, infrastructure and funds to cover operating costs. They also receive support directly from the Ministry of Research (as a research infrastructure). About 50 FTE staff are permanently seconded from the four founding institutions. The staff are divided into an editorial department that manages the relationships with the content producers (blogging researchers, publishers, journal editors), an IT department that runs systems and development, a department for international development and a department dedicated to the Freemium services - ‘Freemium’ being a pricing strategy by which a digital product or service is provided free of charge, but money is charged for additional features. The other main source of revenue stems from project funding - national, regional and European. These funds are used to develop new and innovative tools and services. Recently, OpenEdition has added the Freemium model (ji.sc/2Vxjge3) to their revenue streams, but this system has not been introduced to cover operating costs or infrastructures. Rather, it serves to help the journal publishers and editors to cover their publishing and editing costs. Two-thirds of the money collected is transferred to the publishers OpenEdition works with, while the remaining third is retained to operate the commercial services that sell these Freemium services...."