[IRTalk] Fwd: [EIFL-OA] Harvard Library publishes report on converting subscription journals to open access

[Hilton Gibson]

FYI.

*Hilton Gibson*
Stellenbosch University Library
*http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2992-208X
<http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2992-208X>*


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Iryna Kuchma <iryna.kuchma at eifl.net>
Date: 5 August 2016 at 14:47
Subject: [EIFL-OA] Harvard Library publishes report on converting
subscription journals to open access
To: hilton.gibson at gmail.com
Cc: EIFL - Open Access program announcement and discussion list <
eifloa at lists.eifl.net>


[Forwarded message from Peter Suber <peter.suber at gmail.com>]

*Harvard Library publishes report on converting subscription journals to
open access*

August 5, 2016

The Harvard Library Office for Scholarly Communication (OSC) is pleased to
announce the release of a comprehensive literature review on strategies for
converting subscription journals to open access.

In the spring of 2015, the OSC commissioned the research from David
Solomon, Mikael Laakso, and Bo-Christer Björk, who completed it in the
spring of 2016. We posted a preliminary draft online for a four month
public-comment period, and asked a distinguished panel of 20 colleagues to
add their own comments.

The authors identified 15 journal-flipping scenarios: 10 that depend on
article processing charges (APCs) and 5 that dispense with APCs. For each
one they give examples, evidence, and their assessment of its strengths and
weaknesses. The examples come from all scholarly niches by academic field,
regions of the world, and economic strata.

This comprehensive review of diverse approaches is the report’s strength.
Not every flip was a success, and not all the flips that were successful
using one scenario would have been successful with a different scenario.
But there were successes under every scenario and in every scholarly niche.
Journals that picked a scenario that fit their circumstances were able
preserve or enhance their readership, submissions, quality, and financial
sustainability.

The invited panelists represent a wide range of relevant experience and
expertise, including OA and non-OA academic publishing, fee-based and
no-fee OA publishing, for-profit and non-profit OA publishing, society and
non-society OA publishing, the global north and global south, the sciences
and humanities.

The overall questions were: What has already been done? What conversion
methods have been tried or proposed? What has been the outcome for
submissions, readership, quality, impact, and finances? Which conversion
scenarios have good track records, and in which scholarly niches? When
journal publishers consider a move to OA, what options and evidence should
they take into account?

The research was made possible by a grant to the Harvard Library from the
Arcadia Fund.  We thank both the Arcadia Fund and the Harvard Library for
supporting this research.

Text of the report
https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/27803834

Journal-flipping project home page
https://osc.hul.harvard.edu/journal-flipping

View this announcement online
https://osc.hul.harvard.edu/programs/journal-flipping/report-released


..... Contact info .....

Peter Suber
Director, Office for Scholarly Communication
Widener Library
Harvard University
peter_suber at harvard.edu
bit.ly/petersuber



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