RE: Homer Simpson at the NIH

["Sally Morris \(Morris Associates\)" <sally@morris-assocs.demon.co.uk>]

David, I think you are mistaken to assert that open access 
*publishing* is seen as a threat to smaller/nonprofit publishers. 
Many are, in fact, experimenting with different forms of this 
(hybrid, delayed and/or 'full, immediate' open access)

What is seen as a threat by many is the potential parasitisation 
of journal revenues by article versions in repositories.

Sally Morris
Email:  sally@morris-assocs.demon.co.uk

-----Original Message-----
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of David Prosser
Sent: 23 August 2007 19:11
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: RE: Homer Simpson at the NIH

Joe

If we take open access out of the picture for the moment, your 
view of larger players taking an increasing proportion of a 
non-expanding market is a frightening one for the smaller, 
society publishers.  It matches with the view that I have taken 
of the 'big squeeze' for the smaller players and suggests that if 
nothing changes in the market then the diversity of publishers 
(including not-for-profits and university presses) that we all 
want to see maintained is at risk.

Now let's reintroduce the idea of open access.  Unfortunately, 
through what we might call a prism of misunderstanding, open 
access has been seen as a great threat to the smaller publishers. 
My suggestion is that handled well it could actually provide a 
survival mechanism for them.  Society publishers and university 
presses have a number of great advantages that could help them 
thrive in a publication-charge open access journal environment - 
they often have high-quality journals with excellent author 
services and they have close connections with their communities 
(a bonus when searching for referees).

I can't imagine that to date any society publisher has lost its 
independence due to open access.  Some have lost their 
independence due to an inability to compete in the big deal 
environment.  As you suggest, the subscription market is not 
going to get any easier for the small publishers.  That's why it 
makes sense to take a good look at open access.

David