[Taxacom] OSTP request for information on Public Access to Peer-Reviewed Scholarly Publications, Data and Code Resulting From US Federally Funded Research

[Carlos Alberto Martínez Muñoz]

Hi Taxacomers,
It is true that paying for Open Access could be a rip-off, but that is only
a partial truth, in one of at least two possible scenarios. The rip-off is
not inherent to OA itself but to the publication system being based mostly
in for-profit publishers with high profit margins. For companies like
Elsevier, this is as high as 37% of the total cost, which is higher than
the profit margin of oil companies.
However, it is clear now that journals are research infrastructures and
that publicly funded academic journals (jobs included) are an integral part
of the data life cycle and of existing physical infrastructures. It is
evident to the European Commission that the current moral imperative and
ethics towards taxpayers is not just about open access but about how much
is lost in private publishers' profit margins. With this I want to say that
private publishers are already experiencing the economic effects of a
change of paradigm at the European level. Regardless of the platform or
software, we will build a distributed, pan-European academic press in the
upcoming years. The best current example that I know is the European
Journal of Taxonomy.
Of course, not all the science is publicly funded and private publishers
have a role to play in both publishing and innovating. About private
innovation, we should also not lose sight that part of it is also co-funded
with public funds (rip-off included!). If well managed, there could be a
symbiotic interaction, benefiting both the public sector and the private
sector, instead of the predatory interaction that exists today.
In summary, we will implement the necessary measures to close the research
cycle within academic infrastructures. USA could do the same too in quite a
short time, as there have been voices calling for more support to academic
press. With non-profit academic journals, we could save up to one-third of
publishing and access expenses and invest those in publishing more,
expanding access and improving the current cyber-infrastructures. Now, if
in USA you do mandate open access but don't change the publishing paradigm,
then yes, Stephen Thorpe will be totally right, it will be a big rip-off,
with (for example) publication and access charges rising 5% per year while
the university sector will be growing just 1% per year. You could use your
freedom and your democracy for voting against open access, or you could use
it for voting for integrating non-profit publishing into academia. Up to
you!
Cheers,

Carlos A. Martínez Muñoz
Zoological Museum, Biodiversity Unit
FI-20014 University of Turku
Finland
ResearchGate profile
<https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Carlos_Martinez-Munoz>
Myriapod Morphology and Evolution
<https://www.facebook.com/groups/205802113162102/>