The Future of Scholarly Publishing: Open Access and the Economics of Digitisation

289 Pages·2017·2.074 MB·English

by  Peter Weingart, Niels Taubert

TThhee FFuuttuurree ooff
SScchhoollaarrllyy PPuubblliisshhiinngg
OOppeenn AAcccceessss aanndd tthhee EEccoonnoommiiccss ooff DDiiggiittiissaattiioonn
EEDDIITTEEDD BBYY PPEETTEERR WWEEIINNGGAARRTT && NNIIEELLSS TTAAUUBBEERRTT
The Future of
Scholarly Publishing

Open Access and the Economics of Digitisation
Edited by
Peter Weingart & Niels Taubert
AFRICAN
MINDS
First published in 2016 by De Gruyter Akademie Forschung under the title
Wissenschaftliches Publizieren: Zwischen Digitalisierung, Leistungsmessung, Ökonomisierung
und medialer Beobachtung.
This English language edition published in 2017 by African Minds
4 Eccleston Place, Somerset West 7130, Cape Town, South Africa
[email protected]
www.africanminds.org.za
2017 African Minds
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.
© 2016 Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften
Chapter 8: Copyright and Changing Systems of Scientific Communication translated
from the German by Charles Heard. All other text translated by Marc Weingart,
with the exception of Chapter 7: Open Access and Chapter 10: A Vision of Scientific
Communication that were originally published in English.
ISBN: 978-1-928331-53-7
eBook edition: 978-1-928331-54-4
ePub edition: 978-1-928331-55-1
ORDERS:
African Minds
4 Eccleston Place, Somerset West 7130, Cape Town, South Africa
[email protected]
www.africanminds.org.za
For orders from outside Africa:
African Books Collective
PO Box 721, Oxford OX1 9EN, UK
[email protected]
CONTENTS
List of Abbreviations iv
Foreword to the English Edition v
introduction
1 Changes in Scientific Publishing: A Heuristic for Analysis
Niels Taubert & Peter Weingart 1
part one: the changing scholarly publishing system
2 D ifferent from Discipline to Discipline: Diversity in the Scholarly Publication System
Konstanze Rosenbaum 37
3 R ecent Processes of Change from the Perspective of Academic Publishers
Niels Taubert 69
4 O n the Situation and Development of Academic Libraries
Peter Weingart 95
5 A Participatory Experiment in Science Policy:
Results and Evaluation of the ‘Publication System’ Online Consultation
Niels Taubert & Kevin Schön 113
part two: framing conditions
6 R ecommendations, Statements, Declarations and Activities of Science Policy
Actors on Shaping the Scholarly Communication System
Ulrich Herb 135
7 O pen Access: Effects on Publishing Behaviour of Scientists, Peer Review
and Interrelations with Performance Measures
David Ball 165
8 C opyright and Changing Systems of Scientific Communication
Alexander Peukert & Marcus Sonnenberg 199
part three: visions
Visions Concerning the Future of Publishing in Science 231
9 E lectronic Publishing, Open Access, Open Science and Other Dreams
Martin Grötschel 233
10 A Vision of Scientific Communication
Reinhold Kliegl 247
11 Methodological Optimism Regarding the Digital Future: Critical Remarks on
the Recommendations on the Future of the Scholarly Communication System
Volker Gerhardt 255
12 Trust, Quality Assurance and Open Access: Predatory Journals and the
Future of the Scholarly Publication System
Peter Weingart 265
13 Publishing in German Sociology in the Year 2030
Niels Taubert 273
THE FUTURE OF THE SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING SYSTEM
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
AHCI Arts and Humanities Citation Index JCR Journal Citation Report
APC article processing charge JIF journal impact factor
BBAW B erlin-Brandenburg Academy of JISC J oint Information Systems
Sciences and Humanities Committee
BMBF F ederal Ministry of Education and KE Knowledge Exchange
Research KII C ommission on the Future of
BOAI Budapest Open Access Initiative Information Infrastructure
CC Creative Commons MPDL Max Planck Digital Library
CODATA C ommittee on Data for Science MPG Max Planck Society
and Technology NPM new public management
DFG Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft OA open access
(German Research Council) OJS Open Journal Systems
DINI G erman Initiative for Network OSF Open Science Foundation
Information
PR public relations
DOAJ Directory of Open Access Journals
RfII C ouncil for Information
DOI digital object identifier Infrastructure
DRM digital rights management RIN Research Information Network
EC European Commission ROARMAP Registry of Open Access
ERC European Research Council Repository Mandates and Policies
FhG Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft RSC Royal Society of Chemistry
(Fraunhofer Society)
SCI Science Citation Index
GDCh Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker
SOAP Study of Open Access Publishing
GWK Gemeinsame
SPARC Scholarly Publishing Initiative
Wissenschaftskonferenz des
SSCI Social Science Citation Index
Bundes und der Länder (General
STM science, technology and medicine
Science Conference of the Federal
Government and the States) TA toll access
HEFCE H igher Education Funding Council TELOTA The Electronic Life Of The
for England Academy
HEI higher education institution TWAS The World Academy of Sciences
HGF Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher UrhG German Copyright Act
Forschungszentren (Helmholtz VAT value added tax
Association of German Research WGL Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft
Centres) Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
HRK German Rectors Conference (Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Science
IAP InterAcademy Partnership Association)
ICSU International Council for Science ZPID L eibniz-Zentrum für Psychologische
IP intellectual property Information und Dokumentation
(Leibniz Institute for Psychology)
IR institutional repository
ISSC I nternational Social Science
Council
IWG interdisciplinary working group
iv
Foreword to the English Edition
The formal scientific communication system is currently undergoing significant
change. This is due to four intertwined developments: the digitisation of formal
science communication; the increasing relevance of profit-making on the part
of many academic publishers and other providers of information (in short:
‘economisation’); an increase in the self-observation of science by means of
publication, citation and utility-based indicators; and an intensified observation
of science by the mass media (‘medialisation’). Previously, these developments
have only been dealt with individually in the literature and by science-policy
actors. In fact, they not only affect the scientific communication system in the
form of simple, individual causal chains but also in the form of long feedback
loops and partly intertwined processes.
This book documents the materials and results of an interdisciplinary working
group (IWG) commissioned by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences
and Humanities (BBAW) to analyse the future of scholarly publishing and to
develop recommendations on how to respond to the challenges posed by these
developments. The IWG served a three-fold purpose: first, the connections
between the abovementioned developments were described; second, further
relevant research on understanding recent developments was undertaken;
and third, recommendations on the design of a future scholarly publication
system were formulated.
Aside from the analysis of these interactions, the IWG also set out to take
diverse framework conditions, standards and perspectives from different
scientific fields into consideration, the goal being to formulate recommendations
in the name of science as a whole and for science as a whole. Thus, in addition to the
factors of influence, the heterogeneity of the publication cultures in different
disciplines and fields of research was to be taken into account. In order to
become familiar with these conditions and to be able to develop this mass of
information into a concise format, interviews with members of the BBAW
were conducted. These provided valuable information on the communication
habits of different disciplines and fields of research, and revealed significant
differences in these habits. Given the limitations of this approach and of the
v
THE FUTURE OF THE SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING SYSTEM
information gained in this process, an online dialogue was conducted which
invited all German-speaking scientists and academics to participate in the
development of the recommendations. Almost 700 participants responded with
great interest and provided the IWG with important information about current
problems and challenges in the formal communication system. Moreover, this
procedure helped in identifying a normative consensus on what constitutes
a good communication system. In addition to the views of the scientists,
perspectives of experts from publishing companies and libraries were surveyed
in order to gain a multi-layered and more complete picture of the publication
landscape. Finally, three expert reports on central issues were commissioned.
By means of a multi-level evaluation and decision-making process, the
Academy adopts recommendations of working groups so that – in cases of
approval – they are published in its name. In spite of efforts to involve scientists
early on in the development of recommendations in order to learn about
their perspectives, standards and interests, protests emerged during the final
process of acceptance. Several Academy members from the humanities called
the recommendations unbalanced insofar as the role of digital publication was
overly emphasised while that of printed publications was neglected. These
arguments were taken into consideration in a revised version. In our opinion,
the debates during the course of acceptance indicate one thing in particular:
there is a need for further extensive discussion about how to deal with the
current challenges in the scientific communication system. This issue will
continue to occupy science within and outside the Academy.
As per the IWG’s intention, the focus was mainly on the sciences and
humanities in Germany. However, in the course of the work it became clear
that the issues discussed by the group are also relevant for academic publishing
in other countries. This was corroborated by the fact that when presenting
some of the findings at a conference at Stellenbosch University in September
2016, interest was expressed by the director of Centre for Research on
Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST), Professor Johann Mouton, to
publish an English translation. This interest is based on two grounds: first, the
academic publishing system is at the base of CREST’s core activity, especially
bibliometric studies of world-wide scholarly publishing, and second, Professor
Mouton’s role at the South African Academy of Science in reporting on the
state of scholarly publishing in South Africa.
The anthology provides contributions that, at first sight, may be regarded
as case-specific for Germany. For example, one contribution deals with the
possibility for mandatory open access publishing in the context of German
copyright law; another chapter reports results from a participatory experiment
involving only German-speaking scientists. Yet, these topics notwithstanding,
vi
Foreword
this book can contribute to the transfer of ideas and perspectives, and allow for
mutual learning about the state of scientific publishing in different settings.
Other parts of the book clearly go beyond the German context and are
pertinent to the current discussion at the international level. This applies
to the contribution by Niels Taubert and Peter Weingart which provides
a systematic introduction to the topic. The analytical focus is on current
challenges which result in interactions between processes of digitisation,
economisation, medialisation as well as the observation of the communication
system via quantitative indicators. This applies equally for the four chapters in
which the perspectives of scientists, libraries and representatives of publishing
companies are analysed. Interviews with representatives from different types
of academic publishing companies illustrate which ‘market imperfections’
can be found among the providers of academic publications, which actors
play the role of protagonists of innovation and push development towards
digital publication, and what the effects of digitisation have been on academic
publishing companies. Likewise, another chapter deals with the situation of
academic libraries. The focus here is on the financial situation of the libraries,
their role as service provider in open access publishing as well as their future
role in providing academic information. Although the chapter is based on
the experience of libraries in Germany, the issue will resonate with libraries
elsewhere. David Ball provides an overview on the development of and current
state of discussions on open access, in particular in the United Kingdom.
His chapter shows the different conceptions and initiatives regarding the
implementation of open access as well as its effect on publication behaviour,
problems of quality assurance (peer review) and performance measures.
Two chapters exhibit the plurality and diversity of views among scientists
and different disciplines. The chapter by Niels Taubert and Kevin Schön
provides a critical reflection on the results of an online consultation on the
publication system of science and its influence on the ‘recommendations
on the future of the scholarly publication’. It documents how the wording
of the recommendations changed following the input of 697 scientists, and
describes the challenges of making use of such a participatory approach in
decision-making processes as well as the deficits in this case. Moreover, it
suggests possible future fields of application within science. Ulrich Herb’s
chapter covers the diverse explanations and connected activities of German
science-policy actors related to the scholarly communication system. This
provides the necessary background to put the BBAW recommendations into
perspective. The expert report by Alexander Peukert and Marcus Sonnenberg
focuses on copyright in connection with the transformation of the science
communication system. Copyright plays a key role in the implementation of
vii
THE FUTURE OF THE SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING SYSTEM
open access and in the development of the relationship between science and
publishing companies.
The third part of this book attempts to deal constructively with those
controversies that emerged during the process of acceptance. In the ‘Visions’
section, five representatives from the fields of mathematics, philosophy,
psychology and sociology describe what, from their perspective, a desirable
future of publishing in their respective disciplines could look like. The
diversity of voices in this part once again underscores the different conditions
and standards existing in the many areas of science, as well as the different
perspectives regarding opportunities and risks of digitisation for scientific
publishing. This leads to the conclusion that good framework conditions for
the exchange of research results have to be designed individually for each of
the disciplines.
A large number of people have supported the IWG with their expertise and
contributed to the results. On behalf of the IWG, the editors wish to thank
David Ball, David Ball Consulting; Horst Bredekamp, History of Art, Humboldt
University Berlin; Ralf Birkelbach, Springer Science+Business Media; Rainer
Brintzinger, University Library, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich;
Christoph Bruch, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in
the Helmholtz Centre; Katja Fitschen, Fa. Zebralog; Peter Gölitz, editor of the
journal Angewandte Chemie; Alexander Grossmann, publishing management
and project management in media enterprises, Leipzig University of Applied
Sciences (formerly at Verlag Walter de Gruyter); Silke Hartmann, Copernicus
Publications; Petra Hätscher, University of Konstanz Library; Ulrich Herb,
Fa. scinoptica; Wilhelm Heitmeyer, former editor of the International
Journal of Conflict and Violence; Stefan Hornbostel, Institute for Research
Information and Quality Assurance, Berlin; Wolfram Horstmann, Staats- und
Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen (formerly at the Bodleian Library, Oxford
University); Najko Jahn, University Library Bielefeld; Anne Lipp, Gruppe
Wissenschaftliche Literaturversorgungs- und Informationssysteme, Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG); Wulf D. v. Lucius, Verlag Lucius & Lucius;
Oliver Märker, Fa. Zebralog; Frank Sander, Max Planck Digital Library; Peter
Schirmbacher, Computer and Media Service, Humboldt University Berlin;
Christoph Schirmer, Verlag Walter de Gruyter; Frank Scholze, KIT Library,
Karlsruhe; Eric Merkel-Sobotta, Springer Science+Business Media; Matthias
Trènel, Fa. Zebralog.
Thanks also go to the scientists who provided invaluable input for the
development of the recommendations, and to the organisations and people who
have helped in disseminating and making the invitations to the online dialogue
public.
viii
Foreword
The editors would also like to thank the members of the IWG for their
engagement and dedication in developing the recommendations: Mitchell
Ash, University of Vienna; Martin Carrier, University of Bielefeld; Olaf Dössel,
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology; Ute Frevert, Max Planck Institute for Human
Development; Siegfried Großmann, University of Marburg; Martin Grötschel,
Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities; Reinhold Kliegl,
University of Potsdam; Alexander Peukert, Goethe University Frankfurt;
Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science; Uwe
Schimank, University of Bremen; Eberhard Schmidt-Aßmann, Ruprecht Karls
University Heidelberg; Volker Stollorz, Cologne. Without the work of Kevin
Schön, in particular in the preparation and evaluation of the online dialogue,
the programme of the IWG would not have been possible. Finally, we would
like to thank Ute Tintemann and Wolf-Hagen Krauth of the Academy for their
wholehearted support, especially in administrative matters, and, last but not
least, we are grateful to Professor Johann Mouton at CREST for making this
translation possible, together with funding from the BBAW.
Peter Weingart
Niels Taubert
ix