What do recent studies tell funders
and institutions about the costs
and benefits for them?
John Houghton
Centre for Strategic Economic Studies
Victoria University, Australia
[email protected]
Economics of publishing
 There have been many studies of the economics of
scholarly publishing, with a focus on subscription and
journal publishing costs.
 One major theme has been the potential for cost savings
through electronic publishing.
 A few studies take a systems perspective and look at
system-wide costs (e.g. Tenopir and King).
 To date, the JISC and subsequent studies are the only
ones to look at benefits as well as costs.
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RIN and JISC Reports
 RIN Report – Activities, Costs & Funding Flows.
 Focused on Publication–Distribution–Access and did not look at
production and consumption, or at possible benefits.
 Took subscription publishing as the base and looked at the
implications of change for the funding flows that support
publishing/publishers.
 Scenarios included electronic-only and author-pays publishing,
paying for peer review, and increased research funding.
 JISC Report – Implications of Alternative Models.
 Looked at system-wide cost impacts and potential benefits.
 Included toll access, author-pays, ‘Green OA’ self-archiving, and
the ‘deconstructed’ or ‘overlay journals’ model.
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Implications
 It is clear that alternative publishing models can make
a significant difference to both the costs faced and
benefits realized.
 For funders, the potential increase in research impact
that might come from greater access is important.
 For institutions, looking at whole-of-system costs casts
doubt on simplistic comparisons of potential authorpays fees and current subscription spending.
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Implications
 The implications for institutions will depend on what
they do now and what they might do in different
circumstances.
 Universities vary – different mixes of research and
teaching, mixes of disciplines, university presses,
institutional and subject repositories, etc.
 There is no simple answer – we created an on-line
model so people can explore the implications for
themselves.
Centre for Strategic Economic Studies