19 Association of Research Libraries Research Library Issues 292 2017 both in Canada and internationally, is undergoing pervasive change driven by the ongoing impact of digital technology in streamlining research processes and dissemination workflows as well as evolving financial and access models. Aligned to this, shortly prior to the distribution of the survey, the Association of Canadian University Presses / Association des Presses Universitaires Canadiennes (ACUP) released a report that acknowledged the near-term commitment of Canadian research funding agencies to making open access a condition of funding support.3 Beyond this, taking a highly practical and analytical approach, the report clearly articulates a number of financial and other considerations envisaged by this group as a result, for example, switching to an open access business model for monographs, similar to those currently in place for journal articles. ACUP estimated that the impact of a one-year embargo prior to making a manuscript open access would “...reduce year 1 sales by 25% and years 2–5 sales by 50% [and] will have a minimum financial impact of at least 40% and as much as 50% of sales revenues.”4 Academic libraries (often directly engaged in implementing services to enable compliance with funders’ open access policies), are keenly aware of the issues associated with the “gold” open access business model that has evolved. Authors can opt to pay an article processing charge (APC) to provide open access to their article, while libraries continue to pay a subscription fee for the journal. The survey instrument included quantitative and qualitative questions, including an invitation to provide financial information about revenues and other funding support. The survey also included questions about open access publishing and collaborations between libraries and presses. There was an opportunity for presses, only in opting to undertake an optional follow-up interview, to identify any concerns they had with an “open” or other alternative publishing model(s) and therein propose possible solutions to those concerns.
Previous Page Next Page