How Traditional Publishing Works
Thus the defining property of traditional publishing is editorial selection. That is what publishing is about.
Libraries Face a Future of Open Access
Libraries and legacy publishers are in an unholy embrace. They need not love each other to feel they should stick together.
The Forbidden Forecast: Thinking About Open Access and Library Subscriptions
Green OA has not had a significant effect on subscriptions. What does — and doesn’t — that mean for subscriptions in the future?
Diversity in the Open Access Movement, Part 2: Differing Goals
What, if anything, should be done about the fact that the Open Access movement embraces not only a variety of definitions of the term “open access,” but also a diversity of visions as to what constitutes an acceptable future for access to scholarship?
Diversity in the Open Access Movement, Part 1: Differing Definitions
Fifteen years after the term was coined, we still don’t have a single agreed-upon definition of Open Access (OA). What are the implications of this diversity of views within the OA movement, and how much does it really matter?
What We Tell Society Publishers About Open Access
We are often called upon to discuss open access to society publishers. This is what we tell them.
The Fallacy of ‘Sound’ Science
“Sound methodology” suggests an ideal match to a scientific question that never quite exists. So why do some publishers use it?
Can Highly Selective Journals Survive on APCs?
Are the APC levels set for high-end OA journals too low to be sustainable? Are there other ways that might help high-end OA journals pay their way?
The Pay It Forward Project: Confirming What We Already Knew About Open Access
A new study from the University of California system confirms much of what we already knew about open access, particularly the increased financial burden it places on productive universities.
Publishing, Politics and Reason
Robert Harington grapples with the lack of understanding by the publishing elites on all sides of shifting ideologies of an individual’s relationship to information on the web.
Scholarly-Communication Reform: Why Is it So Hard to Talk About, and Where are the Authors?
Why is it so frustrating and difficult to talk about scholarly-communication reform, and why do those conversations seem to involve virtually all members of the scholcomm ecosystem except for authors?
The Open Access Monograph
There are many programs now to create open access monographs, but the business models surrounding these efforts do not appear to be sufficiently robust to make the OA monograph sustainable. The problem is that the monograph is something that many people want, but few are willing to pay for.
Guest Post, Fred Dylla — Three Years after the OSTP Public Access Directive: A Progress Report
On the three year anniversary of the OSTP Public Access memo, AIP’s Fred Dylla takes a look at the significant progress made.
What Should We Make of Secret Open Access Deals?
A spate of open access “big deals” marks a shift from global offsetting to local offsetting. But the secretive nature of these deals makes them difficult to interpret.
The Dissertation Mess: Balancing Rights and Responsibilities
The broad online availability of theses and dissertations creates difficult tensions between the individual rights of authors, the rights of educational institutions, and the responsibilities that both have to global scholarship and the collective good. How can we resolve those tensions?