Presentation at the SciELO South Africa User Group Meeting Johannesburg 8 September 2015

1. Round table discussion
Author Processing Cost (APC) Business Models
in Open Access
Notes on Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)
Annual Editors’ Meeting / Scielo SA Users’ Group
Southern Sun Hotel, OR Tambo Airport
Hein Willemse
8 September 2015
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2. Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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• Tydskrif vir Letterkunde:
• An independent journal;
• Business model:
• an independent outfit;
• non-profit orientation;
• not linked to a big publisher;
• value-based, academic journal;
• Impression: APC (Author Processing Costs): In the age of
Open Access (OA) = costs authors pay to have their work
published; mostly applicable to conglomerate journal
publishers, especially in the major journals in natural science,
medical fields

3. • Tydskrif vir Letterkunde: Die Afrikaanse Boek, “The Afrikaans
Book” (1936) — Jaarboek van die Afrikaanse Skrywerskring —
“Yearbook of the Afrikaans Writers’ Circle” (continued until
1950);
• Journal of the Afrikaans Skrywerskring;
• In 1951: became a quarterly and became: Tydskrif vir
Letterkunde, i.e. “Journal for Literature”
• 2016 = 80th anniversary, i.e. oldest literary journal on the
African continent
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BACKGROUND: Tydskrif vir Letterkunde

4. • Founded to give direction to an emerging Afrikaans literature, to
support “positive art”, and to advance a range of cultural, writers’ and
educational activities.
• Early business model: Grants from Afrikaner entrepreneurs,
advertisements; Later: governmental support (Dept of Education);
NGO Flemish rescue in the 1970s.
• In spite of these endeavours: the journal as with similar journals has
always had a somewhat precarious existence.
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BACKGROUND: Tydskrif vir Letterkunde

5. • By 2000 the Afrikaanse Skrywerskring had withered away and the
journal continued to exist independently.
• In 2001 the journal underwent major changes: its editorial policy
changed radically, i.e.
• orients itself towards Africa;
• changes the language policy to include English, French and
Dutch.
• broadens its appeal and establishes relationships between
Afrikaans, South African literatures, continental and diasporan
African literature and culture.
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BACKGROUND: Tydskrif vir Letterkunde

6. • Income:
• advertisers in the print version — negligible
• small sponsorships — unreliable
• Survive on page fees.
• Expenses:
• Journal production: layout, printing, distribution
• Other considerations:
• Work — journal management, editing, proofreading — done by volunteers;
• Journal management process: adapted from available resources rather than
expensive software buy-in;
• Hosting of website, incidental cost borne by University of Pretoria
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Business model: Tydskrif vir Letterkunde

7. • Open access and its consequences:
• access to our website increased significantly as well as traffic to
our holdings held by other providers;
• as a result of our open access approach, institutional
subscribers cancelled their standing subscriptions since the
journal became freely available;
• We had to reduce the print run of the journal.
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Business model: Tydskrif vir Letterkunde

8. • Open access and its consequences:
• For the time being: maintaining a print-based product which is also issued
on the web. It is an expensive choice. Among our readers: considerable
resistance to a web-only journal.
• Sooner rather than later: changeover to web-only e-journal,
• will involve a total revamp of the web issue,
• cannot simply be a static dead-screen product,
• it implies the appointment of tech-savvy staff.
• some existing SA e-journals well-established and well-resourced
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Business model: Tydskrif vir Letterkunde

9. • Open access and its consequences:
• instituted a differentiated page fee policy: South African
contributors and those from European and American universities
pay our full page fees while those based at African universities
are zero-rated;
• Loosely maintain a 60-40 percentage in terms of fee paying
authors. It is a delicate balance.
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Business model: Tydskrif vir Letterkunde

10. Business model: Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
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• Practical considerations:
• Drawbacks:
• Volunteer commitment - impact on research & teaching
• Institutionally fragile
• Financial restricted
• Advantages:
• Value-based, creativity, independence
• tradition amidst big business expansion
• editorial control

11. • We value our independence.
• Had several national and international approaches to publish the
journal
• however this would have meant returning to a restricted pay
model or
• a substantial financial commitment to a publisher
• continue to publish the journal on a shoestring while jealously
guarding our independence and editorial control.
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CONCLUSION: Tydskrif vir Letterkunde