The document discusses the economics of open access publishing, detailing costs associated with publishing journal articles and monographs, funding mechanisms, and implications of changing publishing models. It highlights the potential cost savings and efficiency improvements from adopting author-side payment (the gold route) but notes significant challenges in funding transitions. The author emphasizes the importance of collaboration among researchers, institutions, and publishers to navigate these changes effectively.

1. The Economics of Open
Access Publishing
Branwen Hide
September 14th, 2009

2. Outline
Introduction
Costs associated with publishing journal
articles and monographs
Funding Mechanisms
Changes to the current publishing models –
implications for costs and funding
Author-side payment fees – policy
implications
Summary

3. Why publish?
Enhances access to information and use
Ensures appropriate recognition and reward
Quality control – peer-review and editorial
process
Allows one to evaluate usage and impact
Long term preservation

4. Research Publication Distribution Access Usage/
Production Consumption
• Libraries • Researchers
• Funders • ICT
• Institutions • Publishers and secondary publishers • Public
• Commercial • Government
• Researchers providers • Funders
• Publishers

5. Costs associated with publishing journal
articles
Activities, costs and funding flows in scholarly
communications, RIN May 2008
Only looked at journals – excluded monographs and
unpublished data
Excluded secondary publishing and aggregation
Detailed article allocation function (i.e. per journal type)
Economic implications of alternative scholarly
publishing models: Exploring the costs and benefits,
Houghton et al. Jan 2009
Included monographs
Activities include R&D funding process and research
performance
Note: The RIN and Houghton models are available for others to use and manipulate

6. CEPA: Global Costs of Scholarly Communications
140.0
120.0
115.8
100.0
£ Billions
80.0
60.0
40.0 33.9
16.4
20.0
6.4
2.1
0.0
Research Publishing & Access provision User search and Reading
production Distribution print cost

7. UK Research Sytem Costs
UK Research System Costs
25.00 23.20 CEPA JISC
22.50
20.00
17.50
£ Billions
15.00
12.50
10.00
7.73
7.50 6.23
5.00
2.50 1.53 1.34
0.43 0.85 0.07 0.07 0.54
0.00
Research Publishing & Access User search Reading
production Distribution provision and print cost

8. UK Publication and Distribution Cost
900.0 847.3
CEPA JISC JISC (Books) JISC (UK total)
800.0
700.0
600.0 573.9
£ Millions
500.0 473.2
424.9
374.1
400.0
334.4
299.8
300.0 239.5
202.8
200.0 163.1
125.1
100.0 70.6 70.6
39.7
0.0
Non-cash peer editorial work additional costs Total cost
review

9. Cost ratios
60 Ave Journal Biology Journals Biomedical Journals HSS Journals
50
40
%
30
20
10
0
content creation publishing support manufacturing distribution
Fixed cost Variable cost
Modified from The future of scholarly journals publishing among social science and humanities
associations, Waltham, Mary February 2009

10. How is the Scholarly Communications Process
funded?

11. How are the costs of publishing and
distribution met?
Global
Humanities and Social Science
3.4
2.3
2.0 5.5 1.2
8.8
29.4
1.7
62.9
82.8
peer review non cash cost subscription subscriptions author fees (e.g page charges)
author side payment fees advertising advertising other sources
other sources grants and endownments

12. UK funding sources for scholarly communications
500.0
CEPA JISC
450.0 418.0
408.5
400.0
350.0
£ m illions
300.0
250.0
201.8
200.0
132.0
150.0 117.5
113.0
100.0 56.0
71.3
32.8 31.9 45.6
50.0 8.6 16.0
0.0
academic Other (non- Academic academic other Academic Special Total cost
(non-cash) cash) peer Author-side subscription subscription & library access access
peer review review payment revenues provision provision
funding funding

13. Changes to the current publishing models
Recent technical developments in publishing,
library services
Researchers’ are becoming more vocal about
their desire to have complete and unhindered
access to all research outputs
Changes in policy to encourage broad
dissemination and access to research
outputs

14. OA publication (the gold route)
Implications for costs and funding

15. CEPA: global scholarly communications cost savings - move to
gold route
4000.0
3245.5
3000.0
2000.0
C o s t S a v in g s £ M illio n s
1000.0
0.1 -2912.6 -591.9 -8.2 -5.5 -272.6
0.0
Research Academic Other Author-side Advertising Membership Total cost
-1000.0 funders (peer subscriptions subscriptions payment fees &
review non individual
cash cost) subscriptions
-2000.0
-3000.0
-4000.0

16. Impact of the Gold Route on the UK
Costs:
Publishing and distribution of UK-authored articles
further cost savings to publishers of between £18m (CEPA) and
£93m (JISC)
assume some of those savings passed on UK (and overseas)
research authors and funders
Access costs for UK libraries in providing access to global
journals and articles
further cost savings of between £9m (CEPA) and £11m (JISC)
Funding:
Access costs for UK libraries of c £120m
offset by increases for HEIs and other research institutions of
between £213m (CEPA) and £172m (JISC) in publication fees
differentials between institutions
Transition costs*
*The RIN is currently working with JISC to develop a project examining the costs associated with
transitioning

17. Impact of the differences between the
reports
Both can be used to argue towards a move to
OA (gold route)
Both show a signifiant cost savings over all
But there are still questions that need to be
clarified

18. What do we mean when we say ‘Scholarly
Communications Landscape’?
How do you measure the impact of research?
How much money is it really going to save? Is it worth it?
What about the cost of transition?
What are the differences between STM and HSS?
Will the model work for both?

19. Author-side payment fees – policy implications
Needs to be a coordinated approach within
HEIs/research institutions and funding bodies
HEIs should establish dedicated funds, particularly
for those researchers not supported by external
funders, with clear criteria
Funders need to clarify how they will provide support
Publishers need to be clearer and alert authors to
relevant fee waivers, discounts and membership
schemes during the submission process
Authors need to familiarizes themselves with there
funders policies and requirements and ensure they
have the funds to meet the publication fee

20. “The only thing I knew about [Open Access] was what I
learned from the recent PhD comic series …”
http://network.nature.com/people/mike/blog/2009/09/09/paying-to-support-open-access

21. http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1208

22. Summary
Publishing, distributing and providing access to scholarly
publications is pivotal
but is not the only part of the scholarly communications
system
accounts for only 5% of the overall costs
Majority of the cost lies in the time taken to by readers to search,
download and read the articles
Which are overwhelmingly met by the HE sector
There is scope for cash savings, and improvements in efficiency and
effectiveness across the entire system
There is a savings that could arise from a move to OA publishing on
the author-side payment model
But, terms of funding, there is a large-scale shift from
subscription payments to author-side payments
The shift in funding source is much bigger than the cost saving.

23. Branwen Hide
Liaison and Partnership Officer
Research Information Network
Branwen.hide@rin.ac.uk
www.rin.ac.uk

24. References
RIN: Research and the Scholarly Communications Process: Towards
Strategic Goals for Public Policy. (2007) http://www.rin.ac.uk/sc-
statement
RIN, Activities, costs and funding flows in scholarly communications
(May 2008) http://www.rin.ac.uk/costs-funding-flows
Houghton et al.: Economic implications of alternative scholarly
publishing models: Exploring the costs and benefits (Jan 2009)
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/documents/economicpublishingmodel
sfinalreport.aspx
RIN: Paying for open access publication charges (March 2009)
http://www.rin.ac.uk/openaccess-payment-fees
Waltham, Mary: The future of scholarly journals publishing among
social science and humanities associations, (February 2009)
http://www.nhalliance.org/bm~doc/hssreport.pdf
Fowler, Mike: Theoretically speaking, Paying to support open access
(Nature Networks September 2009)
http://network.nature.com/people/mike/blog/2009/09/09/paying-to-
support-open-access
PhD Comic, Nature vs. Science vs. Open Access (May 2009)
http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1208