... The move to digital publishing [at Northwestern University Press] will continue with the transition of TriQuarterly, the Press's literary journal, to an online format next year. TriQuarterly already has an online blog, TriQuarterly To-Day. ...
The journal ... will be made freely available on the web.
"This move will align publishing efforts more closely with the University's academic enterprise while at the same time expanding electronic dissemination and public access to the wonderful literature and essays that are published in TriQuarterly," [University Librarian Sarah] Pritchard said. "Scholarly publishing is increasingly moving to open access, allowing greater distribution of academic work. This reflects that trend and allows the journal editors to take advantage of the multimedia capabilities offered through online publishing." ...
Surprised, saddened, shocked: That's how people in the literary-magazine world reacted when word came down this week that one of their own, the esteemed journal TriQuarterly, would cease print publication next year. ...
The press reports to the university librarian, Sarah M. Pritchard, who played down the idea that TriQuarterly as we have known it would cease to exist. "The magazine is certainly continuing," she said. "It's going to solicit external content from prominent writers, as it always has. It's going to go to an online environment, which will greatly expand its readership." ...
Going online, [Middlebury College professor of humanities Stephen Donadio] points out, is not a budgetary cure-all. "You might save money, but you lose revenue," he says. "Nobody subscribes to online magazines." ...
Adding to the angst among editors is the lack of detail about what a born-again TriQuarterly might look like. The Northwestern news release is vague on the point. Without its traditional editorial structure, Mr. Donadio wonders, will the journal be the equivalent of an open-source blog? ...
Neither [of the journal's current editors] sees how an online version of TriQuarterly would really work and how it would preserve the spirit of the magazine they have known. "At this point, I don't see a successfully open-source model for arts publishing," [associate editor Ian] Morris said. "For me, that's the crux of the matter."
N.B. I've focused the excerpts here on the transition to online-only publishing and OA, but a lot of the angst seems to be wound up with other changes (such as sacking the existing editors and a greater reliance on student editors). This is a journal converting to OA at a moment of internal crisis, rather than in a moment of strength.
Posted by
Gavin Baker at 9/25/2009 05:49:00 PM.
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.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
