Addressing the ‘double dipping’ charge | Australian Open Access Support Group

abernard102@gmail.com 2014-02-27

Summary:

"These pages are exploring the issues of payment for publication including the high cost of hybrid publishing. Concerns about expense can be further exacerbated by the perception that publishers offering hybrid open access are ‘double dipping’ – that is, receiving payment to make an article open access and receiving a second payment for the same article in the form of a subscription to the remainder of the journal ... According to a presentation from Wellcome Trust on 30 October 2008, Mandating Open Access– Slide 11 – the average price increase (2007-2008) across all Oxford Journal titles was 6.9% whereas the average price increase for Oxford Open titles (with open access uptake in 2006) was 1.7%. Eight Oxford Open titles saw an absolute reduction in price from 2007 to 2008 ... In April 2013 the Royal Society published its Transparent Pricing Mechanism stating that they noted the percentage change in the number of non open access published over two three year periods. If that percentage drops they will adjust the price accordingly. Each year they publish the percentages and articles counts on their web site ... On 28 March 2013, Wiley’s released its Subscription Pricing for Hybrid Journals. This states they will exclude articles published as Open Access following payment of an article publication fee in their subscription prices. They will also vary the price of titles proportionately for any shift from subscription-funded articles to gold open access articles ... Elsevier has a No Double Dipping Policy which 'is not to charge subscribers for open access articles and when calculating subscription prices only to take into account subscription articles – we do not double dip' ... Private correspondence from Elsevier has noted that in 2014 they have adjusted the list prices of 27 titles downwards. These include Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology, where they have reduced the list price by 3.7% in 2014, due to a decline in the number of subscription articles and a subsequent increase in open access articles in this journal ... The UK House of Commons Business Innovations & Skills (BIS) Committee report, Open Access: Fifth Report of Session 2013–14  made some observations about the issue of secrecy in the publishing industry, noting the non-disclosure clauses in subscription contracts which prevent subscribers from disclosing the terms and conditions of their arrangements with publishers (par 16). These clauses prevent universities from negotiating better subscription rates, The BIS report recommended 'genuine price transparency from publishers' (par 78).  This secrecy has prompted some commentators to challenge the no double dipping argument from publishers ..."

Link:

http://aoasg.org.au/addressing-the-double-dipping-charge/

From feeds:

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

Tags:

oa.new oa.comment oa.aoasg oa.hybrid oa.gold oa.publishers oa.business_models oa.prices oa.policies oa.uk oa.bis oa.reports oa.oup oa.royal_society oa.wiley oa.elsevier oa.journals oa.double_dipping

Date tagged:

02/27/2014, 10:22

Date published:

02/27/2014, 05:22