On Thursday evening the Oxford Publishing Society (OPuS) hosted an event on Open Access Publishing. Presentations were given by:
Deborah Kahn introduced the topic by explaining the business model behind BioMed Central one of the most successful Open Access journal publishers.
Essentially, the publishing process is exactly the same, the articles are still edited and peer reviewed it is only the business model that differs.
Traditional Publishers' Model
Acquire rights from the author, carry out publishing services such as editing, production, marketing and then charge their consumers to access the content. Once the cost of production is covered, the profits are then divided up between the author and publisher.
BioMed Central Model
Does not acquire rights from the author, but instead gets them to pay for the publishing services (editing, production, marketing), then publish the articles under creative common licence allowing consumers to access the content for free. In this model the cost of production is covered by the author, or more likely their research grant.
An important indicator of success in journals publishing is the impact factor. This is a number calculated by the frequency an article is cited by other researchers. A side effect of a traditional journals publisher switching to an open access model might be increased impact factor... It stands to reason that the more people can access an article (without paywalls), the more chance it has of being read by other researchers and cited by them in future published research.
Resources and Further Reading
Anatomy of Open Access Publishing (2012) BioMed Central
Directory of Open Access Jornals (DOAJ)
Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA)
Study of Open Access (SOAP)
- Deborah Kahn, BioMed Central
- David Ross, Sage
- Brian Hole, Ubiquity Press
Deborah Kahn introduced the topic by explaining the business model behind BioMed Central one of the most successful Open Access journal publishers.
Essentially, the publishing process is exactly the same, the articles are still edited and peer reviewed it is only the business model that differs.
Traditional Publishers' Model
Acquire rights from the author, carry out publishing services such as editing, production, marketing and then charge their consumers to access the content. Once the cost of production is covered, the profits are then divided up between the author and publisher.
BioMed Central Model
Does not acquire rights from the author, but instead gets them to pay for the publishing services (editing, production, marketing), then publish the articles under creative common licence allowing consumers to access the content for free. In this model the cost of production is covered by the author, or more likely their research grant.
An important indicator of success in journals publishing is the impact factor. This is a number calculated by the frequency an article is cited by other researchers. A side effect of a traditional journals publisher switching to an open access model might be increased impact factor... It stands to reason that the more people can access an article (without paywalls), the more chance it has of being read by other researchers and cited by them in future published research.
Resources and Further Reading
Anatomy of Open Access Publishing (2012) BioMed Central
Directory of Open Access Jornals (DOAJ)
Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA)
Study of Open Access (SOAP)