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The rising costs of scientific publishing services and academic content development have been a destabilizing factor, forcing universities to carefully choose which journals to subscribe to. The result could mean universities with a deeper endowment pool gain an unprecedented advantage when it comes to the topics that can be researched through their programs. Open access publishing provides a promising alternative, and partnering with digital publishing solutions can help universities and publishers make this model sustainable for the future.
Recommendations for Open Access
One of the biggest concerns about open access is the economic reality. Academic publishing costs money, and even when reducing the costs by presenting papers only online and not in print, there are still issues of administrative staffing and online operating expenses. MIT is currently a great example of a university showing leadership in this regard because of the results of the school’s ad hoc task force on open access. They recently released draft recommendations for public comment that include the following:
- Pathways for opening access to MIT authors’ publications, including monographs
- Analyses of delivery methods for cost and accessibility
- Explanations of the guiding principles behind open access
The Reason Universities Should Lead the Movement
When the conversation around open access started, there was a strong push to hold academic publishers accountable for the rising costs, but the fact is, universities are both the producers of scholarly journals and their primary audience. If costs are spiraling and universities want to maintain the accessibility of their work, they must lead the charge in shaping a new economy for scholarship.
To make open access effective digital content development and ebook conversion services can ensure research is accessible without compromising funding for academic work. That means finding service providers that can reduce the cost of publishing without cutting corners. To learn more about publishing services that can help with this, contact Amnet today for demonstrations and information.
Sources:
http://news.mit.edu/2019/open-access-task-force-releases-draft-recommendations-0318
https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/conversation-ucs-push-for-open-access/