alittleroad.bsky.social
Open Book Publishers • ScholarLed • Copim • Open Access Books Network • All things open access books • Also on Mastodon (@[email protected]) & LinkedIn (lucy-barnes-01670473) • She/her
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Guests of honour at this party: commercial publishing practices, research assessment policies and academic prestige. Unfortunately these guests have complex and often antagonistic relationships, and all the other guests feel bullied by them in different ways
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And ofc they also get revenue for these OA books, eg. this one I looked up at random, in addition to being OA, is for sale in print at £117.50 a copy, or £75 for the ebook, or whatever they may charge libraries for the ebook - in addition to whatever BPC was charged:
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
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What a surprise! I notice also on their list of costs that they 'discount' the BPC for ECRs by 40%. Any reduction of these eyewatering fees is obviously welcome, but it does suggest as you say that they aren't covering essential costs.
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Suppressing LGBTQIA+ voices robs scholars, readers & future generations of vital insights; creates a precedent for silencing dissident voices; & undermines the dignity of people everywhere.
full statement here: https://bit.ly/4hUL8yb
2/2
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Ha well 'does this publisher work in an ethical way, economically speaking, and how does that impact my relationship with them' is a question I wish more people would consider!
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And in any case, there's no reason why the costs should all be met by a BPC. There are other revenue streams out there - sales, collective library funding models, leveraging backlist etc. Some presses are working with these. Some are just charging massive BPCs.
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These aren't costs; they're prices. It's often difficult to establish what it actually costs a press to publish a book (for both good & bad reasons). Some presses make the effort to communicate their actual costs and link the BPC to these figures. Some charge what they think they can get away with.
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Yes I think they say an image is the equivalent of 250 'extra' words. Ultimately though I highly doubt universities receive breakdowns itemising these costs in detail, and that doesn't seem to be the point -- you receive the massive topline number and either you agree to pay it or you don't.
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But this money is in the system exceptionally, occasionally (as today's webinar showed) which I think is all OUP care about. They are not interested in equitable, collective models because if they were they would put some effort into devising / implementing one.
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The absolute coup de grace of universities scrambling to find the money for 20K+ OUP BPCs is that the surplus ultimately gets funnelled to one of the richest universities in the world at a time when higher ed is on fire.
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It might not be words, they also have extra charges related to images etc. Certainly things like that can be more costly for the publisher, but there are levels to those costs -- and I think these numbers represent a price rather than a cost.
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Understood. I do wonder if they get any feedback about the level of their BPCs, or if authors simply either agree to pay or don't. (I suspect the latter!)
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Can I ask what you said in response? Of course you don't have to say if you'd prefer not to
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The absolute coup de grace of universities scrambling to find the money for 20K+ OUP BPCs is that the surplus ultimately gets funnelled to one of the richest universities in the world at a time when higher ed is on fire.
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My cynical take on it is they have absolutely no interest in OA books succeeding b/c they are v. effectively monetising ebooks. If authors/funders/libraries are willing to pay these eyewatering BPCs of course they won't say no, but I don't see any interest in anything more equitable or affordable.
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More than 20K or more than 12,250? It wouldn't surprise me if nobody actually pays as 'little' as 12,250.
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It's absolutely nuts. But the university finds the money cos it's OUP. Before they even told us the publisher, I knew who it would be.
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In the chat, a generic breakdown has been given (academic.oup.com/pages/open-r...) -- £12,250K for a 'standard' BPC, and line goes up from there.
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The webinar will be chaired by Lucy Barnes (@alittleroad.bsky.social).
Speakers are:
· Tobias Steiner & Hannah Hillen (@thoth-metadata.bsky.social)
· Graham Bell (EDItEUR)
· Jeffrey Edmunds (Penn State Libraries)
Panellists will speak for 15mins followed by a Q&A.
us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
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And just to be abundantly clear: I was never contacted about this despite being the author of this article.
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The institutional environment, in confluence with its people, can develop a positive open research culture. This is why openness fits neatly in PCE. Yet open is reductively tied to the output's OA compliance. Again, research is a process. Publication is a process. Compliance is a red herring.