Guest Post — Dard Hunter and the Last Real Book: A Cri de Coeur
Tony Sanfilippo looks at the historical books of Dard Hunter and the future of printed works in an increasingly digital and consolidated world.
Guest Post — Transparency: What Can One Learn from a Trove of Invoices?
A new dataset from the Gates Foundation offers insights into author choices and APC pricing.
Ask The Chefs: Beyond the APC
It’s Open Access week so this month we asked the chefs: What’s next for OA? What lies beyond the APC as a funding model? Let us know your thoughts!
Guest Post — The Future of Open Access Business Models: APCs Are Not the Only Way
Highwire’s Byron Russell reports on this year’s OASPA Conference, and future paths to sustainable open access business models.
The Second Wave of Preprint Servers: How Can Publishers Keep Afloat?
In this guest post, Rob Johnson and Andrea Chiarelli of Research Consulting discuss the findings of their recent research study into the recent growth of preprint servers and explore how publishers might respond.
Guest Post — How the American Astronomical Society Acquired Sky & Telescope Magazine
A glimpse behind the scenes as a research society added a popular magazine to its publishing portfolio.
Roadblocks to Better Open Access Models
The conversation around open access has shifted from “should we?” to “how are we going to?” The failings of the author-pays model are becoming increasingly evident. Finding better models is proving to be both urgently necessary and extremely difficult.
Ramifications of the Downward Pressure on Pricing
Publishers of subscription and open access scholarly content are facing downward pressures on pricing. Angela Cochran explores some of the hidden costs associated with a professional publishing operation and asks whether some of the tasks currently done by publishers should be absorbed elsewhere.
Guest Post: Cost per Use Overvalues Journal Subscriptions
Curtis Kendrick, Dean of Libraries at Binghamton University, raises questions about whether cost-per-use is the appropriate metric for measuring the comparative value of library subscriptions.
UC Davis Experiments with a New Textbook Model: An Interview with Jason Lorgan
An interview with Jason Lorgan, executive director of campus stores at @UCDavis, about the university’s innovative new textbook-affordability program.
A Case for Popularization: A Review of Rockonomics
Bringing the authority of the academy to a broad audience should be second only to original research itself, especially if the research community hopes to retain or even increase the public’s support for the esoteric work that goes on behind the laboratory walls.
Building for the Long Term: Why Business Strategies are Needed for Community-Owned Infrastructure
As community-owned and -led efforts to build scholarly communications infrastructure gain momentum, what can be done to help them achieve long term sustainability?
Guest Post: Plan S Version 2 and the Cost of Quality
EMBO’s Bernd Pulverer looks at the revised Plan S Implementation Guidelines.
Guest Post: Plan S and Humanities Publishing
Jasmin Lange from Brill suggests a path forward for open access in the Humanities and Social Sciences.
Guest Post: Do Authors Have Any Power Over Publishers?
Shaun Khoo questions whether authors will exercise their market power to put downward pressure on article processing charges.