AHIS, 28 April 2005

A walk through the scholarly publishing jungle

Paul Harwood

Content Complete Limited

A trek through the scholarly publishing jungle

Paul Harwood, Content Complete Ltd

AHIS, 28 April 2005

A bit of background

• CCL was established in June 2003 by Albert Prior and Paul Harwood (Carolyn Alderson joined in April 2004)

• We represent the buyers of digital content (mainly online journals) in negotiations with publishers and content providers

• We offer an outsourced service for those who…– Lack the knowledge or expertise– Don’t have the time…to do it themselves

AHIS, 28 April 2005

Our customers

• JISC (UK Higher and Further Education institutions and Research Councils) via NESLi2

• The Universities of Ireland (via IReL)• A leading global pharmaceutical company• Cancer Research UK• CGIAR (Consultative Group on International

Agricultural Research)• eIFL (electronic Information for Libraries)• Learned Societies Group

AHIS, 28 April 2005

Let’s cut back the undergrowth and look inside:

•A number of new species appearing which are changing the environment

•Some existing species under threat of extinction

•Some species desperate to retain their dominant position

AHIS, 28 April 2005

One new species has been causing significant disturbance

• OpeniusAccessimus (OA)

AHIS, 28 April 2005

Openius Accessimus (OA)

• The pure version emerged several years ago

• ..and has gained a foothold in many continents

• It is mutating!

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From this…..

Lanl.arXiv.org

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…to these, which are clearly the result of in-breeding!

AHIS, 28 April 2005

All of which presents traditional publishers with an increasing

dilemma…..How many different ways are

there to get the word ‘Open’ into a a brand name!

AHIS, 28 April 2005

How have existing species reacted to the arrival of a newcomer?

AHIS, 28 April 2005

The present King of the Jungle

• Still capable of devouring most of its competitors

• Cell Press gesture to OA and towards authors’ self archiving

• Stressing the vfm of ScienceDirect

• Investment in Scopus and Scirus

AHIS, 28 April 2005

Funding Bodies and Research Councils

• Starting to bare their teeth in the OA debate

• NIH policy on depositing papers in PubMedCentral

• Wellcome Trust letter to VC’s and OA statements

• A European PMC?• Forthcoming Research

Councils announcement on OA

AHIS, 28 April 2005

Learned Societies

• Dilemma - showing their true colours?….

• As a Society, their mission is about widespread dissemination of research….

• Yet, many of them depend on their publishing arm for survival and OA could threaten that…..

AHIS, 28 April 2005

Universities

• Increasingly having to be fleet of foot

• The need to compete on the world stage (Oxford)

• To IR or not to IR?• Attitude to the IPR of their

academics• Their expectations and

ideas for future library and information provision

AHIS, 28 April 2005

End-users

• Some are emerging out of the darkness and trying to engage with the new species

• Just how many are aware of a change in the order of things above ground?

• CIBER research• Depositing papers in IRs• The majority remain

blissfully unaware….unless your name is Steven Harnad

AHIS, 28 April 2005

The gatekeepers:

• Having to learn new tricks (Managing Institutional Repositories?)

• More liaison and consultation within the organisation (OUP’s NAR)

• Making a case for increased funding

• Fighting off cost-cutting VC’s

• Marketing and promotion

AHIS, 28 April 2005

OA set-backs?

• Government response to the Science and Technology report

• The economics of OA• NIH climb down• DOAJ research• Recent article by David

Stern from Yale University

• Jan Velterop leaves BioMedCentral

• Rick Johnson leaves SPARC

AHIS, 28 April 2005

Yet still considerable belief

• National and Institutional Declarations

(Berlin 3 Conference and here in Scotland)

• Forthcoming announcement from RC-UK

• Publishers announcing more liberal policies in the light of the NIH developments

AHIS, 28 April 2005

Despite all this, life in the jungle goes on….

• The hunters are still out there trying to pick-off easy prey

• The hunted continue to band together seeking protection in numbers

• OA and consortia have contributed to a more level playing field

• Everyone is negotiating with each other!

AHIS, 28 April 2005

“Now, are you going to sign this contract today or not?”

AHIS, 28 April 2005

And life has got better in some ways…..

• Reliable, standardised usage statistics helping to influence negotiations and inform collection development policies (Pharmaceutical Companies)

• Considerable growth in the amount of free content

• Large scale retro-digitisation and availability of backfiles

• Other technological developments (CrossRef and CrossRef Search, GoogleScholar, Google Print)

AHIS, 28 April 2005

…yet more uncertain in others..

• Subscription agents

• Academic and institutional libraries (recent Bangor experience, Learned Societies)

• Smaller publishers

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..and with yet many unanswered questions

• OA to co-exist with the traditional subscription model? To replace? To wither and die?

• What will tip the balance if it sticks around: the financial argument or the moral one?

• The point at which STM publishing is almost wholly online-only?

• Consensus on whether the Big Deal a good deal?

• Whether Google will retain an interest in scholarly communication?

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…even about the very nature of scholarly publishing itself

• Continuously updated articles• Continuous Peer Review• The demise of the journal as an entity and brand• The growing importance of services like RSS • Greater exploitation of online medium (images,

moving models etc)• Will Institutional Repositories take-off and

possible impact on scholarly publishing

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• Each of these issues could easily be the subject matter for a one-day conference in their own right!

• So I’ll stop there and say…..

AHIS, 28 April 2005

Thank you for your attention

PHarwood@contentcomplete.com

www.contentcomplete.com