Summary: I. Firenze University Press - ID card. II. The economic playing field of a Open Access Journal platform. III. Which part the university has to play in the dissemination of science?

1. The economic playing field of the
Firenze University Press
OA Journal platform
By the Book 2016
Building audiences for the book in an age of media proliferation
International Symposium
www.fupress.com | Firenze, June 23-24, 2016
Fulvio Guatelli
fulvio.guatelli@unifi.it
Firenze University Press

2. www.fupress.com | Firenze, June 23-24, 2016
Summary
I. Firenze University Press - ID card
II. The economic playing field of a OA
Journal platform
III. Which part the university has to play
in the dissemination of science?

3. 1. Background
• Pearson – revenue 2013: 9,330 Billions USD*
• Reed Elsevier – revenue 2013: 7,288 Billions USD*
• Thomson-Reuters revenue 2013: 5,576 Billions USD*
• University of
Firenze – revenue 2013: 0,572 Billions euro**
• FUP – revenue 2013: 0,046 Billions euro**
* «Publishers Weekly», annual ranking 2014
** Budget summary report 2013
www.fupress.com | Firenze, June 23-24, 2016

4. 2. Firenze University Press - ID card
• It was established in 2000
• It is a publishing house belonging to the
University of Florence (51,451 students /
1843 professors in 2012)
• It publishes academic books and journals in
digital and paper editions
• Mixed access model: open and commercial
access for both monographs and journals
Catalogue and produc/on:
• 800 books and 40 journals
• 100 new .tles and 52 journal issues a year
www.fupress.com | Firenze, June 23-24, 2016

5. 3. Economic model (roughly speaking)
www.fupress.com | Firenze, June 23-24, 2016
Books:
• 80% of the production costs are covered by
sponsors
• 15% by book sales (university textbooks)
• 5% by book sales in bookshops
Academic journals:
• 75% of the main production costs are covered by the
owners of the journals
• 5% of the main production costs are covered by
APC’s
• 20% comes from subscriptions (mostly to
institutions)

6. 4. Access to the publications
Mixed model combining open and toll access
• 1/2 of the books are published in full open
access digital editions
• 1/2 are on toll access (both paper and digital
editions)
• 90% of the journals in open access digital
editions
• 10% of the journals available on subscription
(bundle subscription: print + online)
www.fupress.com | Firenze, June 23-24, 2016

7. 5. FUP Open Access Journals
• “FUP open access library”: 37 peer review
journals / 403 research books
• Platform OJS (open source platform OAI-PMH
compliant)
• DOI: DataCite (CRUI agreement)
• User licenses: creative commons (CC BY / SA /
NC-ND)
• STM: 12 journals
• HSS: 25 journals
• SciVersus Scopus: 8 journals (+ 2 under evaluation)
• WoS: 3 journals
www.fupress.com | Firenze, June 23-24, 2016

8. 6. Is it an OA journal at zero cost?
No, it is not!
What kinds of cost are involved?
• peer review process
• production
• dissemination
• Indexing service
• technological infrastructure
• overheads
www.fupress.com | Firenze, June 23-24, 2016

9. 7. Who pays for an open access journal?
The business model of a FUP OA peer-
reviewed journal:
• Submission/pubblication fees (author pays)
• Membership dues (learned societies)
• Institutional subsidies (University,
government, foundations, companies)
www.fupress.com | Firenze, June 23-24, 2016

10. 8. OA Journal platform
The economic playing field: the x factor
What is the economic playing field of a
university OA journal platform?
• Excursus: in Classical Logic, if something holds
for any arbitrary element x, then we can
conclude that it holds for every element
(Generalization Rule)
• Our arbitrary element x is a Journal
www.fupress.com | Firenze, June 23-24, 2016

11. Subject Area: Agricultural and Biological Sciences
• Journal owner: italian scientific association
(ITA)
• Publisher: University Press (ITA)
• Frequency: biannual
• 360 pages per year
• 27 items per year
• Language: ENG
• Print and digital edition
• Access: OA
www.fupress.com | Firenze, June 23-24, 2016

12. 9. OA Journal platform
The economic playing field: bibliometrics
Our journal is a hard worker:
• Publication Ethics COPE compliant: yes
• Production and access statistics
COUNTER compliant: yes
• Fancy app web 2.0 compliant: yes
• Content indexing on the main indexes: yes
• SciVerse Scopus: yes
• WoS: yes
Fine, but where is it in WoS? In the middle! It is
not at the top of the list, or the bottom
www.fupress.com | Firenze, June 23-24, 2016

13. 10. OA Journal platform
The economic playing field: Small/Big fish
How much does the arbitrary element x cost?
Small fish publisher: < 1 million (euro) revenue
• Case1 - Membership dues model: 7.000,00 euro per year
• Case 2 - APC’s model: 260,00 euro per article
Big fish publisher: 1 < 10 billion (euro) revenue
• Case 1 - Membership dues model: 30.000,00 euro per year
• Case 2 - APC’s model: 1200,00 euro per article
www.fupress.com | Firenze, June 23-24, 2016

14. 11. OA Journal platform. The economic
playing field: the economic Delta (Δ)
Δ is the economic bracket for an OA journal
platform, where:
• 7.000,00 euro < Δ < 30.000,00 euro per year
(membership dues model)
• 260,00 euro < Δ < 1200,00 euro per article
(APC’s model)
This economic bracket really exists and is ready and
waiting!
www.fupress.com | Firenze, June 23-24, 2016

15. 12. What part can the university play in
the dissemination of science?
Dramatis personae:
• (1) Research evaluation (institution and
careers):
- ANVUR (AERES-HCERES/ HEFCE, SHEFC,
HEFCW, DELNI)
-VQR 2004-2010/2011-2014 (RAE 2008/ Campagne
d’évaluation 2013-2014)
- ASN 2012, 2013
• (2) New mixed tools for evaluation
(bibliometrics / peer review / informed peer review)
www.fupress.com | Firenze, June 23-24, 2016

16. • (3) Digital infrastructure, data set and
indexes of research products (production /
access / citation statistics)
• (4) quality weighted allocation of public
research funding
www.fupress.com | Firenze, June 23-24, 2016

17. The ‘Comedìa’:
• The virtuous circle: Research → Evaluation →
Reward → New research
• The certified dissemination of the products of
science is the benchmark of the virtuous cycle.
• (Hp. 1) The certified dissemination of the products
of science is the mission of the academic
publishing of the future
• (Hp. 2) no one than universities has more
interest in getting involved in academic publishing
www.fupress.com | Firenze, June 23-24, 2016

18. Thank you for your attention
www.fupress.com | Firenze, June 23-24, 2016

19. The economic playing field of the
Firenze University Press
OA Journal platform
Fulvio Guatelli
fulvio.guatelli@unifi.it
Firenze University Press
www.fupress.com | Firenze, June 23-24, 2016
By the Book 2016
Building audiences for the book in an age of media proliferation
International Symposium