SCOAP3

Next Chuck Ekman talked about the SCOAP3 project -- coming from the high-energy physics community (HEP).

Goal of this group is to convert the small core of high-impact journals in this field into OA --
* six journals; want to convert 5 HEP journals and 1 additional 'broadband' journal

* Publishers: Springer, Elsevier, AIP and APS
* Consortium model -- instititions will redirect their subscription funds toward consortium
* Driven by authors from CERN, who are doing very important work on colliders which lots of people want to publish

What they're trying to do is to rescue peer review. Libraries have little incentive not to cancel the journals, since most of the scientists get their access through arxiv.org.

Phased transition outline:

1. Stakeholders estimate their current expenditure on the HEP journals targeted by SCOAP (no money changes hands). Note that the UC is a stakeholder in the US.
2. Stakeholders pledge to redirect their current spend to SCOAP3 through an Expression of Interest (no money changes hands)
3. Once a sizeable fraction of budget is pledged, SCOAP issues a tender to publishers (no money changes hands)
4. Publishers answer the tender. Formal agreement on:
* journal license packages are un-bundled; the OA titles are removed
5 ScOAP partners establish the consortium, decide on the governance, adjudicate contracts and commit funds (no money changes hands)
6. Contracts with publishers happen
7) payments happen

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Summary:
Both SCOAP and BRII embrace the author/producer pays model; both non-disruptive; both aim to be transformative

The Physics People and Open Access

So this is about getting the high impact journals in physics published in open access. The funding part of it (sponsored by CERN) as a model needs to be taken from the slides. This is a bit fast for me to capture.
I find myself thinking that the consortium approach taken is rather complex. Not sure that this will work based on how much money each of the players needs.
There are a number of references for this that Chuck displayed at the end of his slides.
Questions are ensuing.

Now the Scholarly Communication Part - mostly BRII

The talk will have more to do with BRII (Berkeley Research Impact Initiative) than with SCOAP 3 initiatives. Scholarly communication is contextualized as a globalization issue that in fact parallels a number of the trends in the past and has seen precedents in other fields. There has been a greater commercialization of discourse, growth of author/producer-paid models, pluralist models of authorship.
Cites the faculty attitudes found in recent research at UC.
BRII subsidizes up to 3K for publication in "open access", which is operationally defined in a particular way. They are trying to respond to the OA journal impact and the hybrid open access journal. It seems apparent that there will be disciplinary inequities in the area of OA that libraries would like to address.
The goals of the BRII were to promote their research, etc. They looked for other programs (UNC and U Wisconsin had them), but they were "quiet" and didn't offer as much to publish. They had to find good partners between research and the library, and to deal with cost models. There were issues that kept arising, including peer review, etc. During rollout, had issues with researchers, conference proceedings as a major form of contribution, page charges subsidizing, grant funding.
At this time, they have 11 approved requests with disciplines that range. Next, BRII plans on promoting the program. approaching publishers, developing a knowledge base around the items, and look at a campus analysis of the cost and outcomes.

Berkeley Research Impact Initiative (BRII) & Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics (SCOAP3)

Chuck Eckman of UC Berkeley will speak about BRII. BRII, co-sponsored by UC Berkeley's Vice Chancellor for Research and the University Librarian, is an 18-month pilot project supporting faculty members, post docs, and graduate students who want to make their journal articles open access. SCOAP3 is a consortium that will attempt to facilitate Open Access publishing in High Energy Physics. By re-directing subscription money, everyone (universities, labs and funding agencies) involved in producing the literature of particle physics pays into a consortium (SCOAP3) which then pays publishers so that all articles in the filed are open access.

All presentations are available on YouTube if you're interested.

We must actively seek failure...

Context:

• Commercialization of scholarly discourse.
• growth of author/producer-paid models
• ensuing continuity in the "pluralist phase" of scholarly communications

UC faculty attitudes and behaviors:

• 75% aware of journal pricing rising
• 63% existing peer review process discourages new forms of high quality peer-reviewed publishing
• 22% say they have published in an open access venue.
  

BRII Basics: www.lib.berkeley.edu/brii/