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Innovation – and Journals in the Digital Era

Roger ClarkeXamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, Canberra

Visiting Professor in Cyberspace Law & Policy, UNSWin eCommerce at Uni Hong Kong, in Computer Science at ANU

http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/........II/OAR08.html, OAR08.ppt

Open Access & Research Conf. – Brisbane26 September 2008

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Invention

The conception of a new idea

The expression of a new idea in an apparatus or method

Innovation

The application of knowledge, in orderto manufacture and deploy a new kind of artefact

The articulation of an invention

The adoption of a new product or process

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Codified Knowledgeexpressed and recorded, in a more or less formal language (text,

formulae, blueprints, procedure descriptions)

disembodied from individuals

communicable information

Tacit Knowledgeinformal and intangible

exists only in the mind of a particular person

‘knowing that’ cf. ‘knowing how to’

not readily communicated to others

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Codified KnowledgeAn omelette recipe

A combination of structured and unstructured text

Tacit KnowledgeThe expertise to interpret the recipe

to apply known techniques and tools to the activity,to recognise omissions and exceptions,to deliver a superb omelette every time,

to sense which variants will work and which won't,and to deliver with style

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Info Flows Within the Innovative Organisation

ArticulationTacitKnowledge

CodifiedKnowledgere Artefact

and Process

ArtefactCodifiedKnowledgere Artefact and Its Use

Manufacturingand

DocumentationProcesses

The Innovative OrganisationArtefactsCodifiedKnowledgere Artefacts

and Their Use

‘PriorArt’

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The Roles of Journal Articles in Innovation

ArticulationTacitKnowledge

CodifiedKnowledgere Artefact

and Process

ArtefactCodifiedKnowledgere Artefact and Its Use

Manufacturingand

DocumentationProcesses

The Innovative OrganisationArtefactsCodifiedKnowledgere Artefacts

and Their Use

‘PriorArt’

TheoreticalPapers

Empirical Papersand Underlying Data

PrototypesExperimentalApplications

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The Future of Journals in the Digital Era

Agenda

• The Functions of Refereed Journals• Articles in the Digital Era• Journals in the Digital Era• Publisher-Categories• Publisher-Categories' Cost-Profiles• Business Models in the Digital Era

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Refereed JournalsThe Core Functions

• Quality Assurance / Accreditation

• Publication Channel

• Discovery Mechanism

• Archival MechanismClarke R. & Kingsley D. (2008)'e-Publishing's Impacts on Journals and Journal Articles'Journal of Internet Commerce 7,1 (March 2008) 120-151http://www.haworthpress.com/store/product.asp?sku=J179

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Refereed JournalsThe Core Functions

Function Emphasis

• Publication Channel Original

• Discovery Mechanism Interim

• Archival Mechanism Interim

• Quality Assurance / AccreditationContemporary

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The Journal inMid-to-Late 20th

CenturyAcademic Life

The Journalas Accreditor

Editor

Reviewers

SCHOLARLY COMMUNITY

ResearcherAuthor

INSTITUTION INSTITUTION

The Journalas Publication

RESEARCH FUNDERS

Working Papers

LIBRARY /ACQUIRER

LIBRARIES / ACQUIRERS

tendingoutwards

Reader

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The Digital Era's Impacts on Articles

• Early exposure of PrePrints• 'Living Articles'• Multi-Repository Publishing• Multiple Discovery Mechanisms• Linked 'grey literature' / supporting data• Interactive Publications (animation, video,

models supporting 'what-if' analysis)

• Open Review'interactive public discussion''electronic letters to the editor'

• Central Submission-Points => "a market for articles"

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The Digital Era's Impacts on Journals

• Process: PrePrint Publication first, Review second, Revision third, Accreditation fourth, Final Publication last

• Granularity (Volume, Issue, Article)• Publication-when-ready

• Distributed Storage of 'Separates' in multiple repositories (own, employer's, discipline's)

• The Virtual Journal as an index-page of links to Separates, each carrying a signed certificate

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The Journal inVery Early 21st

Century Academic Life

The Journalas Accreditor

Editor

Reviewers

SCHOLARLY COMMUNITY

INSTITUTION

LIBRARY AS PORTAL

tendingback inwards

Personal and/or Institutional

Repository/ies(1) PrePrint

(2) PostPrint

ResearcherAuthor

INSTITUTION

Reader

The Journalas Publication

RESEARCH FUNDERS LIBRARIES / ACQUIRERS

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Categories of Journal-Publisher

• Unincorporated MutualAn informal association of a modest number of people with a common interest

• Not-For-Profit AssociationA formally constituted not-for-profit association of individuals, usually within a particular discipline, profession and/or geographical region

• For-Profit PublisherA for-profit corporation, or a profit-oriented business unit of a not-for-profit association

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Journal-Publisher Characteristics

• Formincorporated; business-unit; unincorporated

• Motivationa not-for-profit, associated with a community; an outsourced service provider; an entrepreneur

• Revenue Modelcross-subsidised; self-funding; cross-subsidiser; for-profit

• Scopeone Journal; some Journals; many Journals

• Scalelittle cash flow; small business; substantial business

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A Journal Cost-Profile Model

• Establishment• Operations

• Submission-Related• Article-Related• Issue-Related• Generic

• Infrastructure Maintenance

• Financial AspectsClarke R. (2007)'The Cost-Profiles of Alternative Approaches to Journal-Publishing'First Monday 12, 12 (December 2007)

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Cost-Elements within Operations

Submission-Related• Receipt,

Acknowledgement & Management

• Assessment ProcessConduct & Management

Issue-Related• Editorial• Production-Editing• Production• Protection• Distribution

Article-Related• Production-Editing• Cataloguing

Generic• Marketing• Customer Relationship

Management• Archive Management• Indexing• Governance

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The Primary Factors That Affect Costs

? Submission-Load – Count, Communications Intensity• Articles Accepted and Published

• Size, ‘Special Features’• Issues Published

• Size, i.e. article-count, ‘page-count’, special features

• Frequency• Competitive Virility

• Extent of the Brand Image Investment• Emphasis on Market-Penetration, Revenue

Maximisation, Content-Protection and other measures to control leakage of revenue

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‘The Answers’• Unincorporated Mutual

• Subscription-Based Print• Gratis eJournal

• Association• One Print Journal• One eJournal• Five Journals – P or E

• For-Profit Publisher• Subscription-Based Print• Subscription-Based eJnl• Open Access Print / eJnl

• $20,000 pa – $1,000 per art.• Fully-Sponsored, hence ‘Nil’

• $112,000 pa – $3,750 per art.• $22,000 pa – $730 per art.• $3,750 per art. or $730 per

art.

• $137,000 pa – $4,600 per art.• $112,000 pa – $3,700 per art.• $4,200 per art. or $3,400 per

art.

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What Value-Add by For-Profits?

• Pre-production, production, distribution,and their management, are no longer difficult

• There isn’t just one ‘one-stop shop’; there are many• The Web enables aggregation with ease• The Web enables discovery with ease• The Web enables auto-hotlinking generally,

not just across a single publisher’s holdings

• Exploitation of market power (entry barriers, switching costs, control of backlists, bundling) is not value-add

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Is the Higher Price Worth Paying?

• For-Profit Publishers’ higher cost-profiles arise from these additional functions:

• Marketing• Brand Management• Customer Relationship Management• Content-Protection• Profit-Making

• These do not benefit authors • Nor communities (unless profit is made by

Associations, or at least shared with them)

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Digital Era Business Models

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A Confounding FactorEconomic Rationalism in the Tertiary

Sector• Much-Reduced Government Funding• Governance from Collegiality to Managerialism• Objectives and Strategies from knowledge

advancement through research, instruction and supervision to Profit, and henceto revenue, cost, and market-share

• Competitive Exploitation is favoured, and hence Collaborative Research is threatened

• Increased Tensions are inevitable between Universities and Scholarly Communities

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Innovation – and Journals in the Digital Era

CONCLUSIONS• Journals have an Important Role in Innovation,

but:• Openness is Vital (libre / 'free as in speech')• Absence of a Cost-Barrier is Vital

(not necessarily gratis / 'free as in beer',but no monopoly-enabled super-profits)

• Cost-Profiles are now much lower• DIY ePublishing can be sophisticated• Proprietised Journals have been undermined• A Transition Period is in train, and

monopolies are being savagely defended