Open Access Monographs in the Humanities

Open Access monographs in the humanities and social sciences conference 1-2 July 2013

Organised by JISC collections and OAPEN, Hosted by the British Library (presentations link)

 

This was a timely and thought provoking conference, the first of its kind to discuss the monograph as a research output and how this sits with open access (OA) publishing. The theme evident through all discussions was the tension between the desire to keep the monograph as an object with control, integrity and boundaries, and the culture of discourse and community which are at the core of the Humanities and Social Sciences (H&SS). However, an understanding that OA publishing is “not something that’s coming, it’s here” (Hacker, Open Monograph Press at Heidelberg) meant that the conference focused on implementation and problem solving. Key challenges for authors, publishers, distributors and libraries were reviewed. Alongside this, business models, international common policies and frameworks were identified. This report summarises the strand for institutional libraries and suggests a way forward for Kent.

Summary of challenge

In the last 20 years monograph sales have declined from an average of 2000 to just 200 sales per title.  A new OA business model is required for the monograph to survive and the H&SS research output to remain relevant in the digital age. OA for monographs has not yet been made mandatory by Finch, AHRC, RCUK, Leverhulme, or HEFCE. The Wellcome trust is the only grant awarding body to have done so. 

Benefits of OA monographs (summarised by Dr Rupert Gatti, Open Book Publishers, Director of Studies in Economics Trinity College, Cambridge)

·        Broader readership – increased access to readers not connected with an institution

·        Reader interaction  - a new peer review model at pre-and post- review

·        Opportunities for multimedia publications e.g. overlay maps, incorporating text with video and music, audio and web apps

·        Relate research to primary sources – connect back to digitised archive

·        Innovations in research and dissemination  - can be done by the academic community not just commercial publishers

·        Reduced costs of text translation  - enables non-native English speakers to be internationally competitive

All sounds great but how and who pays?

New OA monograph business models

·        Gold – authors pay a book processing charge (BPC) up front for OA.  A range of payment models exist across publishers.  Includes not for profit companies such as Open Book Publishers and Open Monograph Press.  But who provides the money?  Research funders or University libraries?

·        Green – deposit in an institutional repository.  But embargoes are a problem - very restrictive e.g. Palgrave allow one chapter to be OA after 36 months. There is no equivalent of the Sherpa Romeo Journals system to check permissions. 

·        Freemium – libraries or readers pay.  Publishers make basic HTML ‘read-online’ version available online for free and libraries pay through subscription/membership for formatted “premium” versions (Pdfs, edoc) with additional data.  These premium sales fund the free version e.g. Open Editions, OECD

·        Library consortium/partnerships – groups of libraries pay fixed costs for collections of OA titles. The cost per title or collection reduces with the number of participating libraries e.g. Knowledge Unlatched.

·        Altruists pay for public benefit. Best for back titles, crowd sourced e.g. Unglue.it

·        Increased University Press publishing  – larger institutions could see benefits e.g. Michigan, but librarians were sceptical – publishers are a professional business and universities do not have the resources/skill-set to do this

Challenges for libraries

·        Moving away from traditional distribution channels so OA can be accommodated, e.g. Dawsons and Ebrary impose DRMs on OA books

·        Preservation and Reliability – what if an OA provider ceases to exist?  Long-term technical reliability of platform?

·        Change in processes of handling commercial e-books V. OA books – collection development, training and discoverability

·        Will book and chapter level DOIs be needed? – MARC records for each

·        Hybrid OA monographs – containing in and out of copyright materials (OA and non-OA material)

·        Is there a reference point for help with technical issues with OA Books as with commercial e-book providers?

·        All institutional libraries will provide similar resources  – it will be the quality of access and support provided that will stand out not the collections

·        Administering ‘BPC’ – staff resource costs and pressure on library budgets

Supporting OA monographs at Kent

·        Subscribe to DOAB (Directory of Open Access Books) and integrate into catalogue/resource discovery

·        Provide workshops/training/checklists for academics and post-grads so that they can be supported and encouraged to publish OA

·        Promote and support the use of Kent Academic Repository for Green OA: supporting authors on their use of KAR e.g. with terms of licences, safeguarding items in KAR and ensuring long term access

·        Guarantee preservation through LOCKSS and CLOCKSS, and Portico. Investigate relationship with National archiving projects and preservation models

·        Current awareness of future policy environment – e.g. the role of KAR for the next REF

·        Help library users discover and access the best quality and most relevant OA materials through:

o   Resource awareness training sessions and publicity of OA materials

o   Library subject guides and other library resource webpages

o   Reading list system to integrate and link to OA Books

o   Evaluating and distinguishing between OA publishing and free web books – produce a guide for quality sources

o   Indexing other high quality OA sources for catalogue/resource discovery

o   Investigate referencing options for OA Books with reference management tools (RefWorks)

·        Review models such as Freemium, Library partnerships and managing an in-house ‘print on demand’ service

·        Investigate subscriptions to tools such as CrossMark with a commitment to maintain quality across updated OA documents

·        Taking on more responsibilities that traditionally sit with publishers?

Good quotes

“An old tradition and a new technology have converged to make possible an unprecedented good for scholarship” (Neylon, PLoS quoting Peter Suber, Budapest Open Access Initiative)

“context trumps content” … “creation of a community not a thing”… “libraries as laboratories” (Guedon, University of Montreal)

“The explosion in OA publishing has fuelled the rise of questionable operators” (Adema, DOAB)

“OA triggers anxiety about quality which has resulted in entrenchment” (Fitzpatrick, MLA)

Further reading

Kathleen Fitzpatrick Planned Obsolescence: Publishing, Technology and the Future of the Academy (NYU Press, 2011)

Hugh McGuire, Brian O'Leary Book: A Futurist's Manifesto. A Collection of Essays from the Bleeding Edge of Publishing (O'Reilly Media, 2011)