Peter Monaghan, Presses Seek Fiscal Relief in Subsidies for Authors, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 13, 2004 (accessible only to subscribers). Excerpt: "One proposed solution now gaining ground is that universities and other institutions that support academic research create a pool of money to provide subsidies for authors to help offset the costs of publishing. Under this plan, all institutions would contribute to the pool, and give authors $5,000 to $10,000 in what are called 'subventions' that they could take to an academic press interested in publishing their book. Universities and colleges that require books and journal articles for tenure and promotion but do not maintain their own presses might be asked to contribute more than those that do....Some leaders within the Modern Language Association and the American Council of Learned Societies, as well as the Association of American University Presses, have endorsed the idea."
(PS: Nobody interviewed for the article raised OA issues, so I will. Are we talking about subventions that cover all the costs of publication or only some? If all, then why not issue the book in both an OA edition and a priced-print edition? If only some, then could the increased print sales that OA editions seem to stimulate cover the gap?)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 8/09/2004 10:33:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
