The decline in gold OA is clearly a result of librarians choosing read&publish agreements over supporting full open access publishers, which is frankly a scandal. Scientists should be up in arms over it. Very shortsighted.
You may have a slight conflict of interest there, Gunther, since you own a fully OA publisher! The sad truth is that open access is low on the list of researchers' priorities. They want to publish in journals that help them to further their careers; I doubt many of them understand (or care about) the difference between fully OA and hybrid journals.
We have Q1 journals (and two that are at the top of their disciplines) and researchers do want to publish with us, and it does help their career. But what upsets me is if they are lured away and encouraged to publish in hybrid journals by librarians who make deals with legacy publishers that cover the APCs, while eliminating institutional open access funds so that researchers who don’t have funding have no other choice to publish either in subscription journals or the journals the library makes a TA deal with. This is anticompetitive behavior.
Publishing seems to be getting more complex by the day, Teo. I'm glad the essay provided food for thought and will help you to navigate next week's challenges.
The decline in gold OA is clearly a result of librarians choosing read&publish agreements over supporting full open access publishers, which is frankly a scandal. Scientists should be up in arms over it. Very shortsighted.
You may have a slight conflict of interest there, Gunther, since you own a fully OA publisher! The sad truth is that open access is low on the list of researchers' priorities. They want to publish in journals that help them to further their careers; I doubt many of them understand (or care about) the difference between fully OA and hybrid journals.
We have Q1 journals (and two that are at the top of their disciplines) and researchers do want to publish with us, and it does help their career. But what upsets me is if they are lured away and encouraged to publish in hybrid journals by librarians who make deals with legacy publishers that cover the APCs, while eliminating institutional open access funds so that researchers who don’t have funding have no other choice to publish either in subscription journals or the journals the library makes a TA deal with. This is anticompetitive behavior.
Great insight, James! Coming at the end of a complex business week, your article helps me set the stage for further conversations on Monday.
Publishing seems to be getting more complex by the day, Teo. I'm glad the essay provided food for thought and will help you to navigate next week's challenges.