A SINGLE ECOSYSTEM
Humanities research traditionally has a low deposit rate in repositories. This is in part because journals will keep HSS articles under embargo often twice as long as STEM work, as the citation half-life is longer—scientific data becomes obsolete far more quickly than humanities research. HSS publication cycles and peer review processes are longer as well. The gold model of OA journal publishing offers some solutions, but they are not always as feasible for HSS as they are for STEM. Article processing charges can be prohibitive, especially as humanities studies are rarely funded as fully or via the same mechanisms as STEM research. The practice of unbundling, where authors are given a menu of editorial services to choose from according to their budgets, is a poor solution as well, according to Eve—“Do we really want people to skimp on proofreading?” he asks. He favors the consortial model, where journals join forces in order to remain affordable and share resources, and has built OLH on this principle. He feels that the economies of HSS and STEM form a single ecosystem, with similar problems and opportunities. The initial concept for OLH, in fact, was modeled on the Public Library of Science, an open access consortium of scientific journals.BUILDING OLH
Eve discussed OLH with LJ in January 2013, when it was still in the early stages of development. He envisioned OLH as a consortial platform with the authority of established names behind it, explaining that “We need a publishing venue that attracts instant respect from scholars. That can only be done by ensuring that it was built by scholars with the requisite academic capital, not imposed by publishers, who are losing the moral high-ground. The organization needs to be non-profit, but sustainable.” Together with his fellow academic project director, Caroline Edwards, Eve has developed OLH on the Library Partnership Subsidy model, in which libraries join forces to support the infrastructure of an OA platform rather than simply purchasing individual journals. “To fund an operation publishing 250 articles and 12 books in partnership with reputable presses per year, we need a banded average of just $700 from 500 libraries,” Eve explains. “If 1,000 libraries participated, this cost is lowered to $350. On the $700 rate that's a cost to each library of $2.80 per article.” Participating libraries are entitled to representation on the OLH Library Board, giving them a say in governance issues and input into the future inclusion of overlay journals—co-branded journals that will run on top of the OLH platform. In April 2014, the University of Lincoln secured an initial planning grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to help build and launch OLH. This will involve developing a business model to ensure its sustainability, soliciting and processing articles, and building the infrastructure in partnership with OA publisher Ubiquity Press. Signups are not yet open, but OLH has a expressions of interest from some 65 libraries, with a firm commitment from The Wellcome Trust, and 150 articles pledged. Eve plans to launch OLH in spring or summer of 2015, with 90 libraries and four or five journals to be phased in. He has written an automated typesetting program to help facilitate the publishing process, and is hoping to attract some “brand name” partner libraries and editors. OLH’s Monograph Publishing Pilot already has interest from Oxford University Press, Harvard University Press, Cambridge University Press, and the born-OA press Open Book Publishers. Even given the widespread reluctance to adopt OA practices that necessitates a mandate system, Eve has high hopes for the future of OA. Academic libraries can do their part by talking to faculty about OA, he advises; the same problems exist everywhere, and researchers need to be walked through the process in order to demystify it. And while gold—scholarly work freely available in OA journals—is the ultimate goal, Eve told LJ, “Green [is] the way to go in order to fix the mess we’ve made. Green props up the existing system to a degree, but you’re not going to change everything overnight. Support gold, mandate green.”We are currently offering this content for free. Sign up now to activate your personal profile, where you can save articles for future viewing
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Martin Eve
Hi Jim, Yes - there will be an open access PDF version available immediately with a CC BY-SA license. Best wishes, MartinPosted : Oct 04, 2014 03:52
Jim Clapp
I noticed that "Open Access and the Humanities: Contexts, Controversies and the Future" is available for purchase. Is there an "open access" version?Posted : Oct 03, 2014 08:11