The economic playfield of the Firenze University Press Open Access Journals Platform

The economic playfield of the Firenze University Press

OA Journal platform

Scuola Galileiana di Studi SuperioriQuale futuro per le riviste accademiche? Open Access, valutazione, distribuzione

www.fupress.com | Padova, November 28, 2014

Fulvio [email protected]

Firenze University Press


Summary

1. Background2. Firenze University Press - ID card3. What numbers are we talking about? 4. Economic model (roughly speaking)5. Access to the publications 6. FUP OA Journals7. A OA journal is at zero cost? 8. Who pays in a open access journal? 9. FUP OA business model

10. OA Journal platform. The economic playfield: Classical Logic

11. The economic playfield: the element x

12. The economic playfield: bibliometrics13. The economic playfield: Small fish

14. The economic playfield: Big fish

15. The economic playfield: the Delta (Δ)

16. 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: 0,063 Billions euro**

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


2. Firenze University Press - ID card

•  It was established in 2003•  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 journals

•  The academic scope of the Press is universal•  The monograph catalogue features a

predominance of HSS•  The academic journals are more evenly balanced

between STM and HSS


3. What numbers are we talking about?


Catalogue and production: •  890 books and 32 journals•  100 new titles and 52 journal issues a year

Academic background of the authors:

•  40% of the FUP authors ∈ University ≠ University of Firenze

Academic certification:

•  Editorial Board of the Press

•  Peer review by two external referees•  35 Scientific Committees

4. 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•  historic catalogue sales reduces the financial

support for sponsored volumesAcademic 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)

The FUP budget:

•  FUP is required to have a balanced budget•  FUP had to be economically self-sufficient


5. Access to the publications

Mixed model combining open and toll access

•  1/3 of the books are published in open access digital editions

•  2/3 are on toll access (both paper and digital editions)

•  80% of the journals in open access digital editions

•  20% of the journals available on subscription (bundle subscription: print + online)


6. FUP OA Journals

•  “Libreria open access”: 24 peer review journals / 316 books

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

•  DOI: DataCite (CRUI agreement)

•  User licenses: creative commons (CC BY / SA /

NC-ND)•  STM: 8 journals

•  HSS: 16 journals

•  Fascia A - ANVUR: 9 journals•  SciVersus Scopus: 6 journals (+ 4 under evaluation)

•  WoS: 2 journals


7. A OA journal is at zero cost?

No, it is not!

What are the kinds of cost?

•  peer review process

•  production

•  dissemination

•  Indexing service

•  technological infrastructure

•  overhead


8. Who pays in a open access journal?

The business model of a OA peer-reviewed journal:

•  Submission/pubblication fees (author pay)

•  Membership dues (learned societies)

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

•  et al.: advertising, fund-raising, crowdfunding, e-commerce, auction


9. FUP OA business model

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

•  Submission/pubblication fees (APC, author pay)

•  Membership dues (learned societies)

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

•  Mixed model: toll access publishing sustains open access publishing


10. OA Journal platformThe economic playfield: Classical Logic

What is the economic playfield of a university OA journal platform?

•  Excursus: Classical Logic and the Universal Generalization Rule (GEN)

•  GEN: if something holds for any arbitrary element x, then we can conclude that it holds for every element

•  GEN: otherwise, A(x) →∀xA(x)


11. OA Journal platformThe economic playfield: the element x

•  Our arbitrary element x is a Journal•  Subject Area: Agricultural and Biological Sciences

•  MIUR Area: Area 05 – Scienze biologiche

•  MIUR Area: Area 07 – Scienze agrarie e veterinarie•  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


12. OA Journal platformThe economic playfield: bibliometrics

The arbitrary element x is a boring swot:

•  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 the first of his class, nor the last


13. OA Journal platformThe economic playfield: Small fish

How much does it cost the arbitrary element x?

•  Small fish publisher: < 1 million (euro) revenue

•  Case1 - Membership dues (learned societies) model: 7.000,00 euro per year

•  Case 2 - APC’s model (author pay): 260,00 euro per article


14. OA Journal platformThe economic playfield: Big fish

How much does it cost the arbitrary element x?

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

• Case 1 - Membership dues (learned societies) model: 30.000,00 euro per year

• Case 2 - APC’s model (author pay): 1111,00 euro per article


15. OA Journal platform. The economic playfield: the economic Delta (Δ)

Δ is the economic space for a OA journal platform, where:

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

•  260,00 euro < Δ < 1111,00 euro per article

(APC’s model)

•  Δ is real and waiting for someone who cares!


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

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

- ANVUR (AERES-HCERES/ HEFCE, SHEFC, HEFCW, DELNI)

- VQR 2004-2010 (RAE 2008/ Campagne d’évaluation 2013-2014)

- ASN 2012, 2013•  (2) Evaluation mixed tools (bibliometrics / peer

review / informed peer review)•  (3) Digital infrastructure and data set:

production / access / citation statistics) → Research products index

•  (4) Research evaluation → quality weighted allocation of public research funding


The ‘Comedìa’:

•  The virtuous circle: Research → Evaluation → Reward → Research

•  The certified and evaluated dissemination of the products of science is the common factor of the virtuous cycle.

•  (Hp.) The certified and evaluated dissemination of the products of science is the core of the academic publishing of the future.


Thank you for your attention


The economic playfield of the Firenze University Press

OA Journal platform

Scuola Galileiana di Studi SuperioriQuale futuro per le riviste accademiche? Open Access, valutazione, distribuzione


Fulvio [email protected]

Firenze University Press

The economic playfield of the Firenze University Press Open Access Journals Platform

Documents