[Web4lib] Open Access Journals - A Major Problem

Fri Oct 8 23:22:01 EDT 2010

Like Walt, I am a non-librarian, but apropos to my membership on this list,
I have a bonafide professional interest in OA publication.  I lean towards
Walt's attitude, but would like clarification.

I assume that what the OA journals complained about (hereinafter "offending
journals") are doing is (as Walt suggests) attempting to measure use and
perhaps track types of use by requiring registration to use a publication
site.  If they are doing something more than that I would be disappointed.
 If that is all they are doing, I am disappointed, but less so.

For clarification, I would want to see a characterization of the problem.
 How many (as a rough percentage of the total) "offending" OA journals are
asking for personal identity information when a user creates an access user
name and password?  For any that ask for less, roughly how many (again as a
percentage) ask for less?  What percentage of the "offending" journals use
cookies or other devices to mitigate the burden of signing on?  In an
library setting this is more problematic than when using one's personal
computer and less reliable as a user-tracking tactic, but the answer to this
last question interests me.

I am personally registered at a few OA sites of professional interest.  My
perception is that some sites are trying to establish a community of people
interested in the particular topic domain and are particularly interested in
having an email address so that they can communicate with the user base on
matters of presumably mutual interest.  The more narrow the topic, the more
legitimate this might be and the less offended the user should be.

In the end, I tend to think that journals with a wider audience should
consider taking a more public interest approach.  However, running any site
still takes effort, commitment and money and if this is not paid for by user
revenues or advertising, the site must be in some sense run by its community
of interested readers.  I would not criticize an OA journal for struggling
with this problem and beginning the search for sustainability by profiling
its users -- at least in terms of their professional background and
interests.  That is a legitimate prelude to developing a sustainability
plan.   What I think may be needed here is a more refined way of
distinguishing between legitimate efforts to keep the source sustainable
from attempts at exploitation for ulterior purposes.   As Walt intimates, if
we do not cut them some slack for their efforts to establish sustainability,
they will simply go away.

Final thought:

      I am particularly interested in self-publication by professional
communities to avoid the problems and cost exploitation that accompany
traditional journals.  Well, even if if there use volunteers supported by
salaries funded by benign institutions, these self-publication efforts still
need some degree of funding or material support.  They often start off
housed within large laboratories or educational institutions who can spare
the infrastructure.  This seems to favor OA supported by large professional
groups with enlightened self interest in promoting rapid and highly
accessible access to the interim and final publications of its users.
 Membership in such groups tends to have at least some degree of support
from individual professional membership fees though, for many, this will be
subsidized by their home institution.  This is not wholly inappropriate and
a large group will only need to divert a small portion of its revenue to
support its community-based publication effort.

   Beyond the group's own immediate selfish interests, the community must
decide that public access to its published work product literally makes for
a better world -- one in which, for example,  their ability to attract
research funding from all sources improves in an environment that favors
openness.  Particularly when public money (i.e. taxes) fund a lot the work,
its extremely good PR to make the work product *freely* available to the
public (NIH requires this now).  Perhaps this ends up bifurcating the user
group into pure readers who should be given free access without need for
self-identification, and professional participants who, at a minimum, "pay"
for access by profiling themselves appropriately.  That is okay with me.

On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 3:15 PM, Walt Crawford <waltcrawford at gmail.com>wrote:

> Speaking as a non-librarian but one who's interested in/writing about open
> access, I'd say:
>
> 1. Open access journals should be treated as well as those your library
> pays
> for. Otherwise, OA is doomed.
>
> However:
>
> 2. As far as I'm concerned, if a journal requires registration or login to
> get to the articles, it's not a true OA journal, even though the Directory
> of Open Access Journals lists some of these. This is an issue that the Open
> Access Scholarly Publisher's Association needs to address (if it hasn't
> already). (I can't find any sign at www.oaspa.org that it has done so.)
> Barriers are barriers; the only barrier to reading OA articles should be
> internet access.
>
> -walt crawford-
>
> On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 12:52 PM, Wilfred Drew <DrewW at tc3.edu> wrote:
>
> > I am seriously considering deleting many of the open access journals or
> > even entire groups of them that are part of the "Freely Accessible"
> > collections within Serials Solutions.  I am thinking about doing this
> > because many are now requiring username/password in order to see content
> > even though it is free.  This is proving to be very frustrating to our
> staff
> > and students.  It complicates OpenURL, ILLiad, and other services by
> adding
> > another roadblock. Any thoughts? Open access standards should also
> include
> > not requiring a username/password.
> >
> > I also posted this message on my blog and on Facebook as well as Twitter.
> >
> >
> > -----------------------------------------
> > Wilfred (Bill) Drew, M.S., B.S., A.S.
> > Assistant Professor
> > Librarian, Systems and Tech Services
> > Strengths: Ideation, Input, Learner, Command, Analytical
> > E-mail: dreww at tc3.edu<mailto:dreww at tc3.edu>
> > Follow the library: http://twitter.com/TC3Library
> > *Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail or document.
> >
> >
> >
> >
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> >
> >
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-- 
Steven E. Patamia, Ph.D., J.D.
Personal Cell: (352) 219-6592