Welcome to the Macalester Open SEAS!
Does your head swim when you think about publishing your scholarly work? Open access… article processing charges… preprint servers… registered reports… journal impact factors… “predatory publishing”... navigating the scholarly publishing ecosystem is not straightforward.
Worry not—you have support from the library! Welcome to the Open SEAS: Open Sustainable and Equitable Access to Scholarship blog, where we’ll be diving into the choppy waters of the scholarly publishing ecosystem.
As librarians at Macalester, we work with the creation, dissemination, discovery, and access to information on a daily basis. We are keenly aware that there are many complexities and contradictions inherent in today’s scholarly communication landscape–for example, that open access to research as a public good can be at odds with values of equity when high article processing costs serve as barriers to researchers getting published. We are impacted directly as we juggle our campus research needs against rising subscription costs to journals and ebooks.
We are also aware that what happens in the greater publishing ecosystem impacts you on an individual level when you publish your work or need to access other’s.
Stay tuned throughout the academic year, as we shine light on the global publishing landscape, from a local Macalester perspective.
About the Authors
LOUANN TERVEER, DIGITAL INITIATIVES & SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION LIBRARIAN
How does your work relate to the topics we will discuss here?
I work with the library publishing platforms such as the Digital Commons institutional repository. In this work I guide students in their questions about publishing their work online (such as Honors Projects and student journals). I also work with faculty and field their questions about the complicated aspects of publishing, open access, and copyright. In the last few years, my library colleague Katherine Fish and I have been working on library initiatives that support more sustainable publishing models and infrastructures.
What’s a pet peeve you have about OA?
Even though the Budapest Open Access Declaration (2002) laid out a simple plan for barrier-free access to peer reviewed journal articles and preprints, over the last 20 years the actions of for-profit players has complicated and muddled this purpose. In addition, these actions have ultimately led to increasing barriers for researchers to get their works published–burying important diverse voices and topics.
What’s your favorite publication/article/resource?
The Scholarly Kitchen is a moderated blog established by the Society for Scholarly Publishing with regular contributors that include researchers, librarians, consultants, and those in the publishing industry–in short, folks who have a pulse on what is happening in the scholarly publishing ecosystem. It’s one of those “you heard about it here first” types of resources that strives to offer a fairly balanced assessment of an issue.
Why do you think open, sustainable, and equitable access to scholarly publishing is important?
It is important to talk about the biases and barriers that are wrapped into the scholarly publishing ecosystem in order to identify issues and possible solutions. Without equity as a guidepost, there is inadequate representation of voices and research topics in the scholarly record.
KATHERINE FISH, SERIALS & ELECTRONIC RESOURCES LIBRARIAN
How does your work relate to the topics we will discuss here?
Given my role in the library, I come at this topic from the realm of library collections and budgets–both of which are, and will continue to be, significantly impacted by open access and its evolving publishing models.
What’s a pet peeve you have about OA?
Here’s a very “e-resources librarian”-y answer: open access has made providing access to library content more complicated. How’s that for irony?! I’ll spare you the details for now (future blog post, perhaps?), but suffice it to say, in my experience, more OA content does tend to mean more time spent managing our collections. The benefits far outweigh the cost, though, so it’s a trade-off I’m happy to make.
What’s your favorite publication/article/resource?
I’m going to cheat and point you to two organizations that are doing really valuable work to shift the needle towards more equity in scholarly publishing: OASPA (Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association) and SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition). OASPA’s membership consists of publishers and infrastructure providers, but their programming and publications are informative and thought-provoking for anyone interested in learning about the opportunities and challenges of the open access movement. SPARC is a strong advocate for open and equitable research systems, and they’ve done important work to shed light on some of the concerning trends in large-scale commercial publishing.
Why do you think open, sustainable, and equitable access to scholarly publishing is important?
There are so many reasons, but here’s one from my professional vantage point: we know that the status quo is problematic on any number of levels. I believe that open access provides us with an exciting and valuable opportunity to rethink how we in the library align our actions with our core values and fulfill our mission. I look forward to exploring that more with all of you, here in this space!
BRIGID McCREERY, RESEARCH & INSTRUCTION LIBRARIAN FOR MATHEMATICS AND NATURAL SCIENCES
How does your work relate to the topics we will discuss here?
As a liaison between the library and folks in the math and science departments, it’s part of my job to keep up with how people are publishing and reading in the sciences. Since lots of science is moving towards open access, it’s a big part of how information in these areas is shared and accessed.
What’s a pet peeve you have about OA?
Publishing open can be quite expensive! Depending on where you’re publishing and how, open access options can place significant cost burdens onto authors, with massive Article Publishing Charges (APCs). This means some of the intention of OA—to include more diverse authors in scholarly publishing—gets significantly more muddied and difficult.
What’s your favorite publication/article/resource?
The Public Domain Review is a really fun resource for learning about materials in the public domain that are openly available. Their focus tends to be on a lot of really old things, so the art is really fun to look at and read about. I’ve also found so many other great collections just by browsing their site.
Why do you think open, sustainable, and equitable access to scholarly publishing is important?
I think it gets to the heart of what libraries are all about—free and easy access to high quality information (among many other things). The business model of scholarly publishing has long been complicated and not particularly favorable to libraries, readers, or authors. I think open access has potential to be an exciting way to change the norms!
Subscribe to this blog to help you stay up to date with the big picture of academic publishing. If interest in these topics grows (gauged by number of subscribers), library staff will explore ways to collaborate on additional in-person conversations or programming.
For more information about how the library is helping move the needle toward more equitable modes of scholarly publishing and access, check out our Open Access Guide or reach out to us.
Wishing you smooth sailing until next time,
Digital Initiatives and Scholarly Communication Librarian
Serials and Electronic Resources Librarian
Research & Instruction Librarian, Mathematics & Natural Sciences