Guest Post — Proposed Uniform Guidance Revisions Would Eliminate Journal Subscriptions and APCs as Allowable Federal Grant Costs
New guidance from the US government on research funding makes publishing and journal subscription costs unallowable.
Expanded Access to Paywalled Content: A Hidden Benefit of Transformative Agreements
What has not made headlines but is also a noteworthy outcome of transformative agreements is the significant increase in access and readership for paywalled articles that they facilitate.
Subscribe to Open: A Mutual Assurance Approach to Open Access
As the success of Subscribe to Open grows, what are the benefits and limitations of the model?
The Core vs. the Crowd — Why Barriers to Entry May Help Restore Trust
A history of the rise of coercive media suggests that raising barriers to entry may be a remedy. Could a business model shift do most of the work for us?
Are Library Subscriptions Over-Utilized?
Lisa Hinchliffe asks, if the true value is of a subscription is being obscured by over-utilization, should libraries seek to dampen such excess in order to have more appropriate measures of the real value of a subscription?
Recurring Dream — Organizations with Subscriptions Are More Valuable
Even Silicon Valley is finding that recurring revenues (aka, subscriptions) lead to more valuable businesses, while helping smaller companies thrive.
Supply, Demand, and the Subscription Model in Scholarly Publishing — An Analysis
An overview of usage trends across libraries and journals indicates that usage is generally stable or up, archives remain of interest, and consumption doesn’t align with authorship or funding.
Economics, Silicon Valley, and Information Warfare — Is Accuracy Becoming a Luxury Item? Or a Casualty?
Information warfare is both tactical and strategic, with much of its success stemming from the weakened economics of the current information economy. Scholarly publishers have experienced this in many ways, from Google Scholar to predatory publishers to pre-print archives — all answers to the calls for “free information” and all revealing tactical and strategic vulnerabilities as accuracy and facts become luxury items in the information war.
Managing the Cost Burden — Is the Pendulum Swinging Back to the Individual Market?
The pendulum for revenues swung from personal subscriptions to institutional subscriptions with the rise of digital options. With growth capped, a new mix of access options is likely to emerge.
Hiding in Plain Sight — Is the Subscription Model the Optimal Business Model for the Digital Age?
The half-forgotten subscription model deserves our praise and renewed attention. In the Digital Age, it has become more popular than ever.
Will 2014 Be the Year of the Individual Paywall for Publishers?
As revenues from alternatives decrease and digital revenue sources prove insufficient, publishers are finding that straight-up asking readers to pay may be the best approach going forward.
Information Subscriptions Continue to Evolve and Thrive — Why Are Publishers Slow to Adapt?
The subscription model is more prevalent than ever, but it’s also different in important ways. What can publishers learn and implement?