Open Access Books: Trends & Options. University of Toronto Seminar February 13, 2014
•Download as PPT, PDF•
1 like•625 views
Open Access (scholarly content that is freely available to the public) is often talked about in the context of journal publishing. However, the Open Access movement is also having significant effect on academic book publishing. UTSC’s Centre for Digital Scholarship, in collaboration with the UTSC Library’s Digital Scholarship Unit, is hosting a seminar on “Open Access Books: Trends & Options” - February 13, 2014 from 12-2pm in MW324 Join Leslie Chan (Centre for Critical Development Studies) and guest speakers Pierre Mounier (Associate Director of Open Edition) and Lucy Montgomery (Deputy Director of Knowledge Unlatched) as they introduce how new publishing partnerships and digital technologies are transforming scholarly book publishing.
Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (20)
Similar to Open Access Books: Trends & Options. University of Toronto Seminar February 13, 2014
Similar to Open Access Books: Trends & Options. University of Toronto Seminar February 13, 2014 (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Open Access Books: Trends & Options. University of Toronto Seminar February 13, 2014
- 1. Knowledge Unlatched: Enabling Open Access for Scholarly Books Dr Lucy Montgomery
- 2. This Presentation • OA Challenges for Books • What is Knowledge Unlatched? • How does it work? • Pilot Collection and Next Steps
- 3. Open Access for Books? • Digital technology is providing opportunities to widen access and increase impact • • Research funders are beginning to require Open Access Many authors would like Open Access options for books
- 5. But… • The cost of publishing a 70,000 – 100,000 word monograph higher than the cost of publishing a 5,000 – 10,000 word journal article • • • HSS research budgets are small Some authors aren’t attached to a research budget at all Author-side payment approaches being taken up by journals won’t work
- 7. What is Knowledge Unlatched? • Not-for-profit • Helping libraries from around the world to share the costs of making books open access • CC-BY-NC or CC-BY-NC-ND • Front-list titles
- 8. Partners Key Supporters CLOCKSS Big Innovation Center HathiTrust British Library Trust Jisc Collections Open Society Foundation LYRASIS Max Planck Society Founding Libraries New York Public Library OAPEN Queensland University of Technology Portico The University of Melbourne The University of Western Australia
- 9. Our Goals • A sustainable route to OA for HSS monographs (long-form publications) • Spread costs of OA across many institutions globally • Ensuring that HSS long-form publications are as accessible as OA science journals • Help libraries to maximize the positive impact of spending on books
- 10. How Does it Work? • KU is helping libraries from around the world to coordinate their monograph purchases • Libraries can choose to jointly make a Title Fee payment to publishers by pledging to unlatch a collection via KU • In return, publishers make a PDF version of titles available on an OA license • Hosting: OAPEN and HathiTrust
- 11. What is a Title Fee? • The Title Fee represents the basic cost of publishing a book • Payment of the Title Fee allows publishers to feel confident that they will break even on each title • Because the Title Fee is a fixed amount as the number of libraries pledging increases, the cost per library decreases
- 14. The Pilot Collection • • • • Proof of concept for Knowledge Unlatched • Maximum cost per library: $1680. This is an average of $60 per title • If more than 200 libraries pledge, the cost for each library will decline 28 new books from 13 publishers Literature; History; Politics; Media & Communications At least 200 libraries from around the world need to sign up so that the collection can be made OA
- 15. An Opportunity to Help Shape Knowledge Unlatched • Libraries that help unlatch the Pilot Collection gain governance rights • They will be able to help shape the future of Knowledge Unlatched through: • • A Library Steering Committee and a Collection Committee KU also plans to establish a joint Library/Publisher forum in early 2014
- 16. The following publishers are included in the Pilot Collection: Amsterdam University Press; Bloomsbury Academic; Brill; Cambridge University Press; De Gruyter; Duke University Press; Edinburgh University Press; Liverpool University Press; Manchester University Press; Purdue University Press; Rutgers University Press; Temple University Press; University of Michigan Press; Knowledge Unlatched is also working with these publishers: Australian National University E Press; Leiden University Press; Monash University Publishing; Open Book Publishers; Penn State University Press; Routledge; SAGE; The University of Adelaide Press; The University of New South Wales Press; The University of Queensland Press; The University of Toronto Press; UN Publications
- 18. Avoiding ‘Double Dipping’ • The amount a library pays will be adjusted to reflect additional format purchases made by each library • If a library orders (or intends to order) a print or eBook format of any title in the Pilot Collection via any channel they will not be charged an unlatching fee for that title • If a library orders all of the titles in the Pilot Collection through other channels there may be no amount due • This approach will be refined in future rounds
- 19. Benefits for Participating Libraries • The ability to ensure that other format purchases contribute to making the Pilot Collection open access. • • High-quality MARC records • • • Charter Member status Usage data: We are working to ensure COUNTER compliance 2 year membership fee waiver Governance Rights
- 20. Pilot Timeline KU Collection Pledging Period October 2013 – 28 February 2014 Decision on Unlatching Early March 2014 If decision is yes, calculate final unlatching fee for libraries Early March 2014 Advise libraries and publishers of pledging result Mid March 2014 Invoices issued to libraries Mid March 2014 Titles become available via OAPEN and HathiTrust Immediate upon publication Publishers paid by KU After books have been unlatched and libraries have paid
- 21. Next Steps • • • Review results • • Continue recruiting more libraries to lower costs further • Help foster diversity in the monograph landscape Develop library role in governance Repeat the cycle again with more books, more publishers (signing up now!) single subject packages and individual title options KU South: an exploration of ways in which KU might work with publishers in developing country markets
- 22. Making Knowledge Unlatched Sustainable Set-up and Pilot Grants and library partnerships cover set-up and running costs From 2014 Increase the number of publishers and books KU will take up to 5% of Title Fees to cover costs, reducing as volume goes up
- 23. Who Has Signed Up So Far? http://collections.knowledgeunlatched.org/signup-list/ Australia; Austria; Brazil; Canada; Denmark; Finland; Germany; Israel; Latvia; Netherlands; New Zealand; South Africa; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; Turkey; United Kingdom; United States; • • • • Research Intensive Universities; Science-focused institutions; High Schools and Community Colleges; A whole of community effort!
- 24. Open Monograph Models (1) – OA edition + sales from print and/or e-books NAP, Bloomsbury Academic – Institutional Support for Press World Bank, Amherst – Library-Press collaboration Mpublishing/Michigan – Library Publishing Library Publishing Coalition (USA) – Funding body side publication fee NOW Netherlands, FWF Austria, Wellcome UK, Max Planck Society, Germany – Author side publication fee SpringerOpen Books, Palgrave Open, Manchester University Press OA – Library consortium Knowledge Unlatched
- 25. What is Different About KU? • • • • • • • • Spreads costs across many institutions Globally coordinated Retains a market element Minimally disruptive Draws on established funding pools Distanced from University politics Applications for developing countries Conducting research around the model
- 27. Sign Up for the Pilot Collection! http://www.knowledgeunlatched.org/ info@knowledgeunlatched.org Twitter: @Kunlatched #KUPilot
Editor's Notes
- Thanks very much Leslie and hello everyone. My name is Lucy Montgomery and, as Leslie mentioned, I am Deputy Director at Knowledge Unlatched. I’m also a Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellow at Queensland University of Technology in Australia – and I have been helping to develop Knowledge Unlatched as part of my fellowship.
- I am going to begin my presentation by providing some context to the Knowledge Unlatched project. As I will explain, the challenges associated with achieving open access for books are a little bit different to those facing journals. Libraries have an especially important role to play in helping specialist scholarly books to get to open access, which is why we created Knowledge Unlatched. I will then go on to outline the goals of the Knowledge Unlatched project and take you through the way that the model works Finally, I will introduce the Knowledge Unlatched Pilot collection, which we are inviting libraries to sign up for, and provide you with some information about what will happen in the next phases of project.
- In order to understand the Knowledge Unlatched model, it is useful to spend a couple of minutes thinking about the Open Access challenges that apply to books and why they are different from journals. We’re all familiar with the fact that digital technology is providing opportunities to widen access to scholarly works, and to increase research impact. Research funders in many countries are beginning to require Open Access for funded research outputs. So far the focus of mandates has been on journals, but there is a growing consensus that OA requirements for books are on their way. And many authors – including myself – would like Open Access options for their books.
- The reasons that authors – or research funders – might want open access for books are pretty similar to the reasons that Open Access is seen as desirable for journal articles.
- But there is a problem. It is, quite simply, that the models being developed to support open access for journal articles are unlikely to work for book length publications. The costs of publishing a 70,000 — 100,000-word book are a lot higher than they are for a 5,000 – 10,000 word journal article. Palgrave Open recently announced a £11,000 fee for the publication of open access monographs on a CC-BY license, while Manchester University Press is charging £5,900 - £7,800 for the publication of books on a CC-BY-NC license. High costs of publishing mean that ‘gold’ routes to open access – or author side payments - are not a practical option for most authors. If the value of monographs is to be amplified rather than lost in a digital world we are going to have to find creative approaches to supporting their publication. We need to find ways to use limited budgets more effectively so that the key outputs of the Humanities and Social Sciences don’t remain locked behind paywalls in a world where journal literature is moving towards open access.
- All of this is why we started Knowledge Unlatched.
- Knowledge Unlatched is a not for profit company helping libraries to share the costs of making books Open Access. We are focused specifically on front-list titles for now. That is, we are dealing with forthcoming books. And by Open Access we mean available to any one in the world to read or download for free, on a Creative Commons Non-Commercial license, immediately upon publication.
- Knowledge Unlatched has an office in London, but we are very much an international project. Our partners include HathiTrust and OAPEN – which will host the open access version of Knowledge Unlatched titles, as fully downloadable PDFs. Titles will also be preserved by CLOCKSS and Portico. We are working with Lyrasis to handle North-American library sign up and Jisc Collections to handle sign-up and invoicing of libraries in the UK. We have also received key early support from the Big Innovation Center, the British Library Trust, the Open Society Foundation and three founding Australian libraries, including my own institution: Queensland University of Technology.
- Knowledge Unlatched is very much about creating a sustainable route to Open Access for book length Humanities and Social Science publications. We are working to do this by helping libraries to spread the costs of Open Access across many institutions, globally. Everyone working on Knowledge Unlatched has been motivated by a desire to ensure that Humanities and Social Science long-form publications are as accessible as open access journal articles. And we think that efficient coordination can ensure that library spending on books supports the widest possible access to scholarship. By working together, Libraries can maximize the positive impact of their book budgets.
- So – how does the Knowledge Unlatched model work? The basic idea was born out of a very simple realisation that the key market for specialist scholarly monographs is libraries. Very few individual readers can afford to purchase their own copies of these books – which can retail for as much as $200. So the money that is supporting this area of publishing is, for the most part, coming from library budgets. So Knowledge Unlatched is helping libraries from around the world to coordinate their monograph purchases. Our reason for doing this is so that libraries can help libraries to offer publishers a Title Fee for books that a community of libraries would like to include in their collections.
- The Title Fee represents the basic cost of publishing a book, including a margin for publisher overheads. Payment of the Title Fee allows a publisher to feel confident that they will not make a loss on a book, even if it is made available on an Open Access license. Publishers are willing to make books available on an Open Access license and to work with Knowledge Unlatched to ensure that double dipping does not occur if they know that their core publishing costs will be covered by the Title Fee, if their book is selected for unlatching.
- There are advantages for both sides in this approach to supporting open access monographs. You can see here that the Title Fee paid by a community of libraries is a fixed amount. As the number of libraries around the world taking part in the program increases, the cost to each library of securing access decreases.
- In October last year we launched the Knowledge Unlatched Pilot Collection of 28 new titles from 13 publishers. The collection is focused on Literature; History; Politics; Media & Communication. We are now inviting libraries to pledge a capped maximum of $1,680, or £1100, towards the collection. This works out to an average of $60 – or £40 per title. But because we are inviting libraries to share a fixed Title Fee, if more than 200 libraries sign up for the collection, the cost for each library will be less.
- The Knowledge Unlatched Pilot is an important step in engaging libraries in the project and creating a framework that will help them to shape its future. Libraries that help unlatch the Pilot Collection will become Charter Members of Knowledge Unlatched. As members they will have governance rights that provide them with a voice in shaping future collections, as well as in helping to steer Knowledge Unlatched towards a successful future. Knowledge Unlatched will establish a Library Steering Committee and a Collections committee in early 2014. We also plan to build on work that we have already carried out on bringing together libraries and publishers interested in the challenge of open access for books by establishing a joint Library/Publisher forum.
- This is a list of the 13 publishers that have included titles in the Pilot Collection. We have already signed up a further 11 publishers for our next rounds – and we are expecting this number to continue to grow over the next few months. You can see a full list of the Publishers that we are working with on our website.
- You can see here the cover images of the titles in the Pilot Collection. A full list of Pilot Collection titles is available on our website – and this slide is just intended to give you a general sense of the collection.
- One of our biggest challenges in developing the pilot has been finding a practical solution to the problem of ‘double dipping’ – or asking libraries to pay twice for the same books. Knowledge Unlatched has always aimed to develop a fair system that allows libraries to collectively pay for books that are valued by the community – and which avoids double dipping. Aggregators play an important role in the sale of digital books. A growing number of libraries in the markets we are targeting already subscribe to aggregated e-book packages. Many libraries also commit in advance to purchasing certain kinds of books, through pre-approval plans. And some libraries may want both a print and electronic copy of the books that we are offering. This presents practical problems for libraries that would like to support the Knowledge Unlatched Pilot Collection, but which very reasonably don’t want to pay publishers twice for the same book. We have come up with a simple approach to ensuring that libraries that order – or plan to order – titles included in the Pilot Collection through another channel aren’t being asked to pay twice for these books. If a library orders a print or any eBook format of any title in the Pilot Collection via any channel within a set timeframe they will not be charged an unlatching fee for that title. Instead, the amount they are invoiced by Knowledge Unlatched will be adjusted down. Publishers have agreed to purchases made by Libraries participating in the KU Pilot as a contribution towards unlatching the collection. It means that libraries that may already plan to purchase the books included in the pilot collection have an opportunity to ensure that their spending is recognised as a contribution towards open access. By extension, if a library orders all of the titles in the Pilot Collection through other channels they may not need to pay anything via Knowledge Unlatched. But all of their purchases would count towards making the collection Open Access, as long as they indicated their other purchases to us through our pledging site. However, we are dealing with complex markets. Finding an approach that is efficient, practical and scalable for both libraries publishers is something that we will continue to refine in the next rounds of the project.
- Ensuring that there are some exclusive advantages available to libraries that take part in Knowledge Unlatched is an important aspect of overcoming the collective action challenges that might hamper a globally coordinated approach to supporting open access books. We have been careful to create a model that includes exclusive benefits for participating libraries, and which offers incentives for early participation. Libraries that help unlatch the Pilot Collection will enjoy a number of benefits: The ability to ensure that other format purchases contribute to making the Pilot Collection open access. High-quality MARC records. We are working with partners to ensure that KU is able to add value to the metadata attached to KU titles as they flow through our system. Participating libraries will have access to usage data relating to the open access version of KU titles. We are working to ensure COUNTER compliance – and we are confident that this is something that we will be able to provide in the future. From 2014 Knowledge Unlatched will introduce a small membership fee – of no more than $500. Libraries that help unlatch the Pilot Collection will receive a 2-year membership fee waiver, until January 2016. Member libraries will have the right to nominate and vote for members of a Library Steering Committee and a Collections Committee. Elections for the collections committee will take place in early 2014. In the first instance, the Library Steering Committee will be drawn from libraries that have supported KU in its start-up phases. Elections for the Steering Committee will take place in January 2016.
- We launched the Pilot Collection in mid October – and the pledging window will remain open until the end of February. The results of the pledging process will be announced in early March. We are aiming to sign up at least 200 libraries. If we are successful, each library will receive an invoice in mid-March that reflects the final number of libraries taking part, as well as any additional purchases they may have indicated to us. LYRASIS will handle the invoicing process for North American libraries. In the UK sign-up and invoicing are being handled by Jisc Collections. The books in the collection will become open access immediately upon publication. And publishers will be paid the Title Fee once libraries have paid their invoices.
- And from 2014, this project becomes all about developing the role of library governance in Knowledge Unlatched and scaling up. We already have a waiting list of publishers interested in offering books to libraries through KU in 2014 – and we are aiming to provide libraries with more titles, more selection options (including single titles and single subject packages) from next year. The cost savings to libraries associated with this model will increase as the number of libraries taking part in the initiative grows, and as the volume of titles flowing through the system expands. So, to ensure that the cost per library goes down, we will continue encouraging libraries to take part in the program and work to offer them high quality books that are relevant to the communities they serve. Knowledge Unlatched South is a project that will explore how KU might work with publishers in developing country markets. We are also eager to explore opportunities for Knowledge Unlatched to encourage diversity in monograph publishing. We will be working with the Library Steering Committee, the collections committee and the Library/Publisher forum to identify the best approach to this challenge.
- As I mentioned, a key goal of Knowledge Unlatched is developing a model that is sustainable in the long term. In order to do this we will ultimately need to ensure that we are not dependent on grants to cover KU’s core running costs. So from 2014 Knowledge Unlatched will apply a 5% surcharge to Title Fees, to cover the consortium’s operation. We believe that this percentage figure can be brought down as the volume of titles increases. We will work with the Library Steering Committee to review the 5% surcharge as the project develops.
- So – who has signed up so far? We are really excited by how international support for the pilot collection – and for the model – is proving to be. The Pilot is demonstrating that it is possible for libraries from all over the world to work together to support open access books. So far libraries from 18 countries have pledged their support for the Pilot Collection. We have also been impressed by the range of institutions that are signing up. The sign-up list includes large, research intensive Universities. However, it also includes agricultural colleges, science-focused institutions such as the Wellcome Trust, community colleges, high schools and even publishing industry consultancies. The pilot is an opportunity for large and small libraries from all over the world to demonstrate their support for open access for monographs, and to work together to find positive solutions to problems that affect everyone. Agricultural colleges, Science focused institutions like the Wellcome Trust, high schools and community colleges, as well as large Humanities focused libraries such as Cambridge are all represented in the list of libraries that has signed up so far. Because this project involves sharing the title fee payment among libraries that participate, if more than 200 libraries sign up the lower the cost will become for each library. The sign-up list is available on our homepage – and we are updating it once a week.
- I don’t have time to go over all of the models for funding open access books that are represented in this slide. However, as you can see, Knowledge Unlatched is just one of the many experiments in open access monograph publishing currently under way all over the world. Ultimately, we hope that Knowledge Unlatched will compliment other approaches to achieving open access for books – providing coordinating infrastructure and funding channels that will enable positive change across the system.
- And, finally, it is worth pointing out some important differences between Knowledge Unlatched and other approaches to funding open access monographs. Perhaps the most important difference between KU and other approaches is that this project is focussed on sharing the costs of open access publishing across many institutions, globally. It is also demand led, rather than supply driven and it includes an important market element.
- We think that creative approaches to coordinating demand for Open Access monographs will benefit stakeholders across the system. We are really excited by the extent to which libraries from all over the world are getting behind this project. And we hope that you will consider signing up for the Pilot Collection.
- So – wish us luck. We would love your support. And I look forward to hearing your comments and questions.