Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Thursday, June 10, 2004

How commercial publishers will respond to the OA tipping point

Adam Hodgkin, After the tipping point: what next? An archived copy of an article first published in Information World Review, May 14, 2004. Hodgkin focuses on how the major commercial publishers will adjust once we approach, and then pass, the tipping point in favor of OA (written before the recent Elsevier policy-change in favor of postprint archiving). Excerpt: "First, if the open access business model looks as though it could become prevalent there will be advantages in being in the field early. BMC and PLoS are first, but if a major STM publisher makes the switch they will also have an advantage of momentum and established reputation in attracting papers and soliciting institutional support....Second, if open access becomes the dominant mode for primary research publishing and commercial publishers/aggregators are at all involved, there will be considerable economies of scale for any players with the right infrastructure and the ability to attract a lot of throughput." Hodgkin is the President and co-founder of xrefer.