the economic playing field of the firenze university press open access journal platform (june, 2016)

The economic playing field of the Firenze University Press

OA Journal platform

By the Book 2016Building audiences for the book in an age of media proliferation

International Symposium

www.fupress.com | Firenze, June 23-24, 2016

Fulvio [email protected]

Firenze University Press


Summary

I.  Firenze University Press - ID card

II.  The economic playing field of a OA Journal platform

III. Which part the university has to play in the dissemination of science?

1. Background

•  Pearson – revenue 2013: 9,330 Billions USD*

•  Reed Elsevier – revenue 2013: 7,288 Billions USD*

•  Thomson-Reuters revenue 2013: 5,576 Billions USD*

•  University of Firenze – revenue 2013: 0,572 Billions euro**

•  FUP – revenue 2013: 0,046 Billions euro**

* «Publishers Weekly», annual ranking 2014** Budget summary report 2013


2. Firenze University Press - ID card

•  It was established in 2000•  It is a publishing house belonging to the

University of Florence (51,451 students / 1843 professors in 2012)

•  It publishes academic books and journals in digital and paper editions

•  Mixed access model: open and commercial access for both monographs and journalsCatalogueandproduc/on:

•  800booksand40journals

•  100new.tlesand52journalissuesayear


3. Economic model (roughly speaking)


Books:

•  80% of the production costs are covered by sponsors

•  15% by book sales (university textbooks)•  5% by book sales in bookshops

Academic journals:

•  75% of the main production costs are covered by the owners of the journals

•  5% of the main production costs are covered by APC’s

•  20% comes from subscriptions (mostly to institutions)

4. Access to the publications

Mixed model combining open and toll access

•  1/2 of the books are published in full open access digital editions

•  1/2 are on toll access (both paper and digital editions)

•  90% of the journals in open access digital editions

•  10% of the journals available on subscription (bundle subscription: print + online)


5. FUP Open Access Journals

•  “FUP open access library”: 37 peer review journals / 403 research books

•  Platform OJS (open source platform OAI-PMH compliant)

•  DOI: DataCite (CRUI agreement)

•  User licenses: creative commons (CC BY / SA / NC-ND)

•  STM: 12 journals

•  HSS: 25 journals•  SciVersus Scopus: 8 journals (+ 2 under evaluation)

•  WoS: 3 journals


6. Is it an OA journal at zero cost?

No, it is not!

What kinds of cost are involved?

•  peer review process

•  production

•  dissemination

•  Indexing service

•  technological infrastructure

•  overheads


7. Who pays for an open access journal?

The business model of a FUP OA peer-reviewed journal:

•  Submission/pubblication fees (author pays)

•  Membership dues (learned societies)

•  Institutional subsidies (University, government, foundations, companies)


8. OA Journal platformThe economic playing field: the x factor

What is the economic playing field of a university OA journal platform?

•  Excursus: in Classical Logic, if something holds for any arbitrary element x, then we can conclude that it holds for every element (Generalization Rule)

•  Our arbitrary element x is a Journal


Subject Area: Agricultural and Biological Sciences

•  Journal owner: italian scientific association (ITA)

•  Publisher: University Press (ITA)

•  Frequency: biannual•  360 pages per year•  27 items per year

•  Language: ENG•  Print and digital edition•  Access: OA


9. OA Journal platformThe economic playing field: bibliometrics

Our journal is a hard worker:

•  Publication Ethics COPE compliant: yes

•  Production and access statistics COUNTER compliant: yes

•  Fancy app web 2.0 compliant: yes

•  Content indexing on the main indexes: yes•  SciVerse Scopus: yes

•  WoS: yes

Fine, but where is it in WoS? In the middle! It is not at the top of the list, or the bottom


10. OA Journal platformThe economic playing field: Small/Big fish

How much does the arbitrary element x cost?

Small fish publisher: < 1 million (euro) revenue•  Case1 - Membership dues model: 7.000,00 euro per year

•  Case 2 - APC’s model: 260,00 euro per article

Big fish publisher: 1 < 10 billion (euro) revenue

•  Case 1 - Membership dues model: 30.000,00 euro per year

•  Case 2 - APC’s model: 1200,00 euro per article


11. OA Journal platform. The economic playing field: the economic Delta (Δ)

Δ is the economic bracket for an OA journal platform, where:

•  7.000,00 euro < Δ < 30.000,00 euro per year (membership dues model)

•  260,00 euro < Δ < 1200,00 euro per article (APC’s model)

This economic bracket really exists and is ready and waiting!


12. What part can the university play in the dissemination of science?

Dramatis personae:

•  (1) Research evaluation (institution and careers):

- ANVUR (AERES-HCERES/ HEFCE, SHEFC, HEFCW, DELNI)- VQR 2004-2010/2011-2014 (RAE 2008/ Campagne d’évaluation 2013-2014) - ASN 2012, 2013

•  (2) New mixed tools for evaluation (bibliometrics / peer review / informed peer review)


•  (3) Digital infrastructure, data set and indexes of research products (production / access / citation statistics)

•  (4) quality weighted allocation of public research funding


The ‘Comedìa’:•  The virtuous circle: Research → Evaluation →

Reward → New research

•  The certified dissemination of the products of science is the benchmark of the virtuous cycle.

•  (Hp. 1) The certified dissemination of the products of science is the mission of the academic publishing of the future

•  (Hp. 2) no one than universities has more interest in getting involved in academic publishing


Thank you for your attention


The economic playing field of the Firenze University Press

OA Journal platform

Fulvio [email protected]

Firenze University Press


By the Book 2016Building audiences for the book in an age of media proliferation

International Symposium

the economic playing field of the firenze university press open access journal platform (june, 2016)

Education