Transcript Focus Group

Alternative publishing models:
Exploring costs AND benefits
John Houghton
Centre for Strategic Economic Studies
Victoria University, Melbourne
[email protected]
+61 409 239 109
Recent and current projects
 Research Communication Costs in Australia: Emerging Opportunities
and Benefits (DEST) (http://dspace.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/44485).
 The Economic and Social Impacts of Open Access (Easi-OA)
(http://www.cfses.com/projects/Easi-OA.htm).
 Economic Implications of Alternative Scholarly Publishing Models
(JISC) (http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/reppres/
economicsscholarlypublishing.aspx).
 Podcast on economics of OA (JISC)
(http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/
2008/08/podcast55johnhoughton.aspx).
 Identifying benefits arising from the curation and open sharing of
research data (JISC).
 European Knowledge Exchange (Netherlands, Denmark
& Germany).
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Research communication costs
AND benefits
Costs, costs, costs…
The goal should be the
most cost-effective system,
not the cheapest!
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Implications of alternative publishing models
JISC Project
 Current work includes a JISC-funded project on the Economic
Implications of Alternative Scholarly Publishing Models, in
collaboration with Loughborough University.
 The aim of the project is to explore the institutional, budgetary and
wider economic implications of the major emerging models of
scholarly publishing (i.e. subscription publishing, OA publishing and
self-archiving), with particular emphasis on the implications for UK
universities.
 Phase I seeks to describe each of the publishing models, and identify
all the costs and potential benefits involved.
 Phase II seeks to quantify as many as possible, and compare costs
and benefits.
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Phase I: Approach and activity model
JISC Project
 Two approaches in the literature: (i) a focus on the publishing
process, and (ii) systems perspectives putting publishing in a wider
context.
 Studies that focus on publishing activities alone tend to overlook areas
in which costs are shifted around the system, confuse that shifting
with cost reduction and not take account of the full system costs.
 We adopted a system perspective and our costing includes activities
related to publishing and those relating to funding, research and
dissemination functions.
 We developed an activity model based on IDEF0 process reengineering.
Centre for Strategic Economic Studies
Scholarly communication process model
JISC Project
Society needs
Commercial needs
C1 C2
Economic incentives
IP restrictions / licensing
Commercial publishing considerations
Access to publications
Copyright restrictions on reusing material
Scientific/Scholarly curiosity
Norms of science/scholarship
Evaluation of the contribution
Public/Tax funding (Block & Competitive Grants)
Funding for research and communication
Fund R&D and
communication
Commercial, government or NGO funding (Contract)
Donations and Philanthropic Grants
A1
I1
I2
Existing knowledge
Perform
research and
communicate
results
A2
Scientific/Scholarly problems
New knowledge
Publish
scientific /
scholarly works
O2
Scholarly publications
A3
Facilitate
dissemination,
retrieval and
preservation
A4
Disseminated scholarly knowledge
Study
publication and
apply
knowledge
A5
Improved quality of life
O1
New knowledge & greater awareness
Companies, government & non-government organisations
Stakeholders in R&D process
Commercial, society or institutional publisher
Philanthropic funders
Libraries
Research Councils
Researchers
Infomediaries
M1
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Cost model and matrix approach
JISC Project
 Scholarly communication is multi-dimensional, so we adopted
a “matrix” approach to costing:
 Activities (e.g. peer review),
 Actors (e.g. universities),
 Objects (e.g. journal articles), and
 Functions (e.g. quality control and certification).
 With the aim of being able to break down and re-assemble the
scholarly communication value chain along any of these
dimensions.
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RESEARCH
Access for all, research
participation based on
merit, not means.
Potential benefits:
Speeding up discovery.
Reduction of duplicative
research.
Fewer blind alleys.
New research
possibilities.
Better educational
outcomes & enhanced
research capabilities.
SOCIETY
Access as needed,
informed consumers (e.g.
health and education).
Potential benefits:
Contribution to the
'informed citizen' and
'informed consumer', with
implications for better use
of health and education
services, better
consumption choices, etc.
leading to greater welfare
benefits, which in turn may
lead to productivity
improvements.
An Impacts Framework
INDUSTRY/GOVT
(1) Access as
needed, more
informed producers
and policy.
OPEN ACCESS
Potentially serves all
RESEARCH
Most/Many served,
but not all
(2) New businesses
add value to content
(e.g. Weather
Derivatives).
INDUSTRY/
GOVERNMENT
Part served,
but not all
SUBSCRIPTION PUBLISHING
Current reach
CONSUMERS/
SOCIETY
Few served
Potential benefits:
Accelerate and
widen opportunities
for collaboration,
commercialisation
& adoption.
The potential for
much wider access
for GPs/nurses,
teachers/students,
and small firms in
consulting,
engineering, ICT,
nanotechnology,
biotechnology, etc.
The potential for the
emergence of new
industries based
upon the open
access content.
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Dimensions of impact: access and permission
(Cost to use)
Expensive
ACCESS
PERMISSION
(Time to use)
(Freedom to use as required)
Delayed
License
(Copyright &
Restricted)
Toll Restricted Access & Hybrid / Delayed
Affordable
Time
Constrained
Copyright
(Standard)
Open Access Publishing & Self Archiving
Free
Immediate
Unrestricted
(Creative Commons)
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Phase II: Quantifying costs & benefits
JISC Project
 We adopted a staged approach that tackles it from the
bottom-up (as case studies and scenarios) and the top-down
(in a simple economic model).
 We explore the costs of the process elements and system
costs, to see cost differences and direct savings.
 We present cases and scenarios exploring the cost savings
resulting from the alternative publishing models throughout
the system, to see the indirect cost differences and savings.
 Then we model the impacts of changes in accessibility and
efficiency on returns to R&D.
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Approach to overall impacts
A modified Solow-Swan model
 There is a vast literature on returns to R&D, which while
varied shows that social returns to R&D are high – typically
20% to 60% a year.
 The standard approach assumes that all R&D generates useful
knowledge (efficiency) and all knowledge is equally accessible
(accessibility), which is unrealistic.
 We introduce “accessibility” and “efficiency” into a standard
model as negative, friction variables, and look at the impact of
reducing the friction by increasing access and efficiency.
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Impact estimation ranges
JISC Project
Example of estimation tables (UK HERD, £ millions)
HERD
6,062
Rate of return to R&D
20%
Per cent change in
accessibility and efficiency
1%
2%
5%
10%
30%
40%
50%
Recurring annual gain from increased access (million)
24
37
49
61
49
73
98
122
124
186
249
311
255
382
509
637
60%
73
147
373
764
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Comparing cost and benefits
JISC Project
 Toll and OA publishing a very different things: toll
access publishing seeks to provide UK subscriber with access
to worldwide research, whereas OA publishing seeks to
provide worldwide access to UK research.
 We approach the question from both sides and try to explore
the lower and upper bounds by looking at:
 The benefit/cost implications of simply adding OA publishing and
self-archiving to current activities, all other things remaining the
same; and
 The implications of OA publishing and self-archiving as
alternatives to current activities, by adding the estimated savings
to estimated returns.
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Exploring FAQs
JISC Project
 Then we explore some FAQs, and we currently have
three examples:
 The diversion of research funding to author-pays – looking at it
from both sides, asking (i) if current Wellcome Trust or RCUK
spending on author-pays fees is beneficial, and (ii) what is the
maximum percentage of funds that could be diverted before
exhausting the benefits;
 The impact of delayed OA – estimating the impact of a 1 year
delay on returns to R&D; and
 Speeding up the research and discovery process – estimating
the impact of a 1 year reduction in the lag between R&D
expenditure and its economic impact.
Centre for Strategic Economic Studies
Alternative publishing models:
Exploring costs AND benefits
John Houghton
Centre for Strategic Economic Studies
Victoria University, Melbourne
[email protected]
+61 409 239 109