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B IB L IO TH E E K WA G E N IN G E N

Project FIGARO

Introduction by

Leo Waaijers, external expert to the FIGARO project,

to the

4th E-ICOLC Conference,

October 4, 2002, Thessaloniki, Greece.

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B IB L IO TH E E K WA G E N IN G E N

Philosophy of FIGARO

Scientific progress thrives on the symbioses of creation and communication of knowledge.

Hence, both creation and communication of knowledge are inherent tasks of the university (i.e. not to be outsourced!)

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B IB L IO TH E E K WA G E N IN G E N

Mission of FIGARO

We strive to provide effective and efficient e-publishing services to individual scientists and scientific organisations through the use of a shared organisational structure and the utilisation of open source and standard base software tools wherever possible.

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B IB L IO TH E E K WA G E N IN G E N

Result of FIGARO

To deliver a non profit operational open modular publication infrastructure for the European academic community at the end of 2004.

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Name of FIGARO

Federated

Infrastructure (or Initiative)

of

GAP (German Academic Publishers)

and

Roquade (Delft, Utrecht, Neth. Acad. Sc.)

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B IB L IO TH E E K WA G E N IN G E N

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B IB L IO TH E E K WA G E N IN G E N

Partners of FIGAROUtrecht University (NL)Library co-ordinatorDelft University (NL) Library contractorOldenburg University (De) Library contractorHamburg University (De) Computing Centre contractorFirenze University (It) University Press contractorDaidalos Ltd (NL) Software house contractorLeuven University (Be) University Press ass. contractorLund University (Se) R&D dept. NetLab ass. contractorLemma Ltd (NL) Publisher ass. contractorDiG Ltd (Pl) Publisher ass. contractorDelft Cluster (NL) Res. Foundation ass. contractorSPARC (USA) Consortium ass. contractor

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Structure of FIGARO

FIGARO

Acad

emic co

mm

un

ity

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Work packages FIGARO• Project Management Utrecht• Document tools Daidalos• Workflow tools Oldenburg• Authentication/authorisation Hamburg• User evaluation Florence• Business model Utrecht• Future publishing models Delft• Implementation Front Offices Utrecht• Implementation Back Office Delft• Legal framework Hamburg• Project evaluation Utrecht• Dissemination results SPARC

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B IB L IO TH E E K WA G E N IN G E N

During the project:

Total project costs 2 million Euro,

EC subsidises 1,4 million Euro.

During the operational phase:Costs of the non profit Back Office recovered by the Front Offices,

Money of FIGARO

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B IB L IO TH E E K WA G E N IN G E N

Money of FIGAROIncome of Front Offices through

membership or participation fees, fee-for-service (e.g., production, conversion, hosting

services), authors or their institutions paying publication fees, authors or their institutions paying review fees (like

examination fees), institutional or organisational task based financing, grants, donations or sponsorships, in-kind contributions to offset expenses (e.g. free housing,

equipment, networking), other fees or sources of income.

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B IB L IO TH E E K WA G E N IN G E N

Money of FIGARO

Basically any creative idea is OK as long as– it is not a high end of the market business,– and there is no assignment of copyrights

involved in exchange for being published.

The fundamento for making a living should be added value, not ownership. Scientific results have been created through public funding. Dissemination of knowledge is a task of the university.

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B IB L IO TH E E K WA G E N IN G E N

Beliefs of FIGAROSAMPLE OF JOURNAL PRICES (Current situation)

Mary M. Case, A System in Crisis.Pittsburgh conference 2001: Scholarly Communication.

1995 2001 % Increase

Brain Research $10,181 $17,444 71.3%

Biochim. Biophys. Acta $7,555 $12,127 60.5%

Chem. Phys. Letters $5,279 $9,637 82.6%

Tetrahedron Letters $5,119 $9,036 76.5%

Eur. Jrnl. of Pharmacology $4,576 $7,889 72.4%

Gene $3,924 $7,443 89.7%

Inorganica Chim. Acta $3,611 $6,726 86.3%

Intl. Jrnl. of Pharmaceutics $3,006 $5,965 98.4%

Neuroscience $3,487 $6,270 79.8%

Theoretical Computer Science $2,774 $4,608 66.1%

Jrnl. of Exp. Marine Bio. & Eco. $1,947 $3,501 79.8%

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Beliefs of FIGARO

Title Price Title PriceTopology & Its Applications

$2,672 Algebraic and Geometric Topology

Free $2,672

Journal of Crystal Growth

$9,220 Crystal Growth & Design

$1,781 $7,439

Evolutionary Ecology (price reduced in 2001)

$467 Evolutionary Ecology Research

$340 $127

Topology $1,303 Geometry & Topology

Free $1,303

Organic Geochemistry

$2,513 Geochemical Transactions

$100 $2,413

Sensors & Actuators, A & B

$5,313 IEEE Sensors Journal

$395 $4,918

Machine Learning $1,050 Jnl of Machine Learning Research

Free $1,050

Plant Ecology (formerly Vegetatio)

$2,861 Jnl of Vegetation Science

$450 $2,411

Tetrahedron Letters $9,624 Organic Letters $2,609 $7,015 Chemical Physics Letters

$10,264 PhysChemComm $100 $10,164

Jnl of Logic & Algebraic Programming

$747 Theory & Practice of Logic Programming

$300 $447

$46,034 $6,075 $39,959

SAMPLE OF JOURNAL PRICES (Future situation) Decrease

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Beliefs of FIGAROGradually growing away from the classical

model by experimenting with:

• continuous publishing (i.e. no journal issues)

• open refereeing

• post publishing refereeing

• various income models

• etc.

Remind, front offices are independent.

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Risks of FIGARO

During the project:

• Complexity.

When operational:

• Quality of content

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Url of FIGARO

www.figaro-europe.net/index.html