Heading for the open road: Costs and benefits of transitions in scholarly communications

LIBER Quarterly

Volumn 21, Issue 1, 2011, Pages 102-124

  Jubb, Michael ^a  

^a Research Network   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Economics; Modeling; Open access; Publishing; Scholarly communications

Indexed keywords

EID: 81855172448     PISSN: 14355205     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.18352/lq.8010     Document Type: Article

References (17)

1. Activities, costs and funding flows in the scholarly communications system in the UK (RIN 2008), available at http://www.rin.ac.uk/system/files/attachments/Activitescosts-flows-report.pdf.
2. Houghton et al., Economic Implications of Alternative Scholarly Publishing Models (JISC, 2009), available at http://ie-repository.jisc.ac.uk/278/3/EI-ASPM_Report.pdf.
3. The report of a study on the barriers to a move to e-only provision of scholarly journals in the UK - E-only scholarly journals: overcoming the barriers (RIN, 2010) - is available at http://www.rin.ac.uk/system/files/attachments/E-only_report_for_screen_0.pdf. The report of a study on gaps and barriers to access, priorities in seeking to fill gaps, and actions that might be taken to that end will be published in the summer of 2011.
4. Michael Jubb and Ellen Collins (RIN), Fred Friend and Neil Jacobs (JISC), Debby Shorley (RLUK), Graham Taylor (PRC) and Robert Kiley (Wellcome Trust).
5. Heading for the open road: costs and benefits of transitions in scholarly communications (RIN, JISC, PRC, RLUK and Wellcome Trust, 2011), available at http://www.rin.ac.uk/system/files/attachments/Dynamics_of_transition_for_screen_0.pdf.
6. It is important to note that the modelling and analysis relates only to peer-reviewed journal articles as the primary means of scholarly communication. In order to simplify the analysis, we have intentionally excluded both monographs and conference publications.
7. The steady state costs, changes in access and benefits have been estimated using a modified version of a model developed previously by CEPA for the report referred to in footnote 1. Transition costs have been estimated separately and include both institutional transaction costs ('one-off' costs); and any 'ongoing' annual costs associated with system-wide transition (not captured in the 2008 CEPA model).
8. Continuing annual costs include changes in (i) net costs incurred in supporting publication, distribution and access (i.e. 'steady state' costs); and (ii) the continuing annual costs associated with transition.
9. This number is confirmed by our own estimates and given further validation by the average APC of $2,367 paid for 440 Wellcome Trust-funded articles published in the last quarter of 2010. The Wellcome Trust articles were published in journals with a wide range of APCs, up to and including $5,000 for Cell Press; the median was $2,250 and the mode $3,000.
10. We show that the central-case cost of £2,572 per article would only have to be reduced by 17% for academic institutions to show a net zero cash cost.
11. The Green 'Zero' case, which includes these sunk costs, is the most expensive for academic institutions, and also for other users
12. Houghton et al., op. cit. note 2.
13. The volatility of the BCR in the lower APC case reflects the relatively low level of costs in the central case. Small additions to these costs therefore have a disproportionate impact on the BCR.
14. In economic terms this is expressed by saying that the price elasticity should be less than -1.
15. We assume a price elasticity of demand of -1.5. This is a plausible level for other products with 'price elastic' demand. Such goods are typically those that are not necessities and make up a relatively small proportion of income
16. The costs of purchasing 300,000 articles at $10 is approximately £3.0 m compared with £1.7 m for 58,000 articles at $30, giving an additional cost to users of around £1.3 m.
17. Since publishers would retain control and could take action.