The Facts About Open Access

This independent study compares the different forms of open access publishing with traditional subscription publishing. It is hoped that this research will contribute to further informed discussion of alternative publishing models toward the goal of providing wide and speedy access to research findings.

Discussion of Open Access tends to be strong on rhetoric but short on facts. The objective of this independent study was to determine the impact of open access on scholarly journals' financial and non-financial factors and to establish a substantial body of data about different forms of Open Access publishing, and a baseline of comparison with traditional subscription publishing. In the first phase of the study, the researchers surveyed 495 journals from four groups: ALPSP member journals (128), AAMC member journals (34), a subset of journals hosted by HW (85) and 248 journals from the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). The survey consisted of 33 closed-ended and 5 open-ended questions and addressed the following major categories: .Demographic: Including type of publisher, location of publishing offices, subject area, type of content published .Financial: Including revenue models, sources of financial support, percentage of total each revenue type represents, revenue trends and expectations, current surplus or deficit .Non-financial: Including print format, copyediting policy, number of internal/external peer reviews, services offered to Authors, copyright and permissions policies, pre/post-publishing rights of authors The open-ended questions asked for the respondent's thoughts on the challenges and opportunities presented by open access, as well as the movement's impact on their own journal or journals and all of scholarly publishing. In the second phase of the study in-depth interviews were conducted with 22 scholarly journal publishers of all types and sizes, representing more than 4,000 journals. The survey, completed in 2005, covers the full-spectrum of business modelsbeing used in scholarly publishing - from traditional access provided primarily via subscriptions (Subscription Access) through Delayed Open Access to Optional (author-side payment) and Full Open Access. It is hoped that this research will contribute to further informed discussion of alternative publishing models toward the goal of providing wide and speedy access to research findings in the public interest.