Berndt Dugall

Open Access Models and their Implications for the Players on the Scientific Publishing Market

Open Access (OA) as a new form of distributing scientific literature is broadly accepted by scholars; but in most disciplines the realization of the paradigm is progressing rather slowly. The reason for this lies; on the one hand; in a lack of incentives for individual authors. On the other hand; there are many different approaches to OA and their effects on market participants are complex. In this article we regard the implications of different OA models for scholars; publishers; libraries and funding organizations and try to explain the motivations behind the actions currently taking place on the scientific publishing market.

Quantum game theory and open access publishing

The digital revolution of the information age and in particular the sweeping changes of scientific communication brought about by computing and novel communication technology, potentiate global, high grade scientific information for free. The arXiv, for example, is the leading scientific communication platform, mainly for mathematics and physics, where everyone in the world has free access on. While in some scientific disciplines the open access way is successfully realized, other disciplines (e.g. humanities and social sciences) dwell on the traditional path, even though many scientists belonging to these communities approve the open access principle. In this paper we try to explain these different publication patterns by using a game theoretical approach. Based on the assumption, that the main goal of scientists is the maximization of their reputation, we model different possible game settings, namely a zero sum game, the prisoners’ dilemma case and a version of the stag hunt game, that show the dilemma of scientists belonging to “non-open access communities”. From an individual perspective, they have no incentive to deviate from the Nash equilibrium of traditional publishing. By extending the model using the quantum game theory approach it can be shown, that if the strength of entanglement exceeds a certain value, the scientists will overcome the dilemma and terminate to publish only traditionally in all three settings.

Exploring the effects of a transition to open access: Insights from a simulation study

The Open Access (OA) movement, which postulates gratis and unrestricted online access to publicly funded research findings, has significantly gained momentum in recent years. The two ways of achieving OA are self-archiving of scientific work by the authors (Green OA) and publishing in OA journals (Gold OA). But there is still no consensus which model should be supported in particular. The aim of this simulation study is to discover mechanisms and predict developments that may lead to specific outcomes of possible market transformation scenarios. It contributes to theories related to OA by substantiating the argument of a citation advantage of OA articles and by visualizing the mechanisms of a journal system collapsing in the long-term due to the continuation of the serials crisis. The practical contribution of this research stems from the integration of all market players: Decisions regarding potential financial support of OA models can be aligned with our findings – as well as the decision of a publisher to migrate his journals to Gold OA. The results indicate that for scholarly communication in general, a transition to Green OA combined with a certain level of subscription-based publishing and a migration of few top journals is the most beneficial development.

Entscheidungsorientierte Kostenbetrachtung für den Bezug elektronischer Zeitschriften im konsortialen Rahmen anhand ausgewählter Beispiele

Of late last time the optimization of costs concerning the acquisition of electronic journals is a much discussed question, whereas we have hardly any concrete contributions in respect of a comparison. Starting with a general classification of costs in that field detailed analysis is done on the basis of available data of different consortia. Subsequently a decision oriented cost-benefit calculation is introduced, which takes into consideration different options (licence and pay per view). On the basis of the variable parameters access numbers and cost per article in the pay-per-view-model, possible optimization processes, which will imply more favourable conditions of purchase, will be pointed out.

Von der Magazinerweiterung der Stadt- und Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt zur hessischen Speicherbibliothek

The City and University Library of Frankfurt with a collection of more than 5.3 Mill. Volumes the largest central library of a German University has activated a new shelf space with a capacity of 2.000.000 volumes. Firstly the construction and the deviated transport activities are described. But also the consequences are indicated which follow from an additonal availability of the former building of the Deutsche Bibliothek on the other side of the street. In this connection also the possibility of a regional storage library is discussed.

Determinanten des Zeitschriftenpreises

Die Studie untersucht, inwieweit sich der Subskriptionspreis einer wissenschaftlichen Zeitschrift von verschiedenen Kennzahlen ableiten lasst. So wird zunachst der Zusammenhang zwischen dem Preis eines Journals und dessen Reputation, gemessen durch den Journal Impact Factor (JIF) und die Anzahl der Zitate, uberpruft. Im Anschluss wird untersucht, in welchem Ausmas sich die Preispolitik der Verlage an der Nutzungshaufigkeit einer Zeitschrift, gemessen uber Online-Zugriffe, oder an den Kosten der Journalproduktion, gemessen uber die Anzahl der in einer Zeitschrift erscheinenden Artikel, orientiert. Um eine bessere Vergleichbarkeit herzustellen, werden die in die Untersuchung eingehenden Zeitschriften in 13 Fachgebiete eingeteilt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass der Zeitschriftenpreis am ehesten mit der Artikelund Zitatanzahl eines Journals korreliert. Ein Zusammenhang zwischen Preis und Journal Impact Factor ist dagegen nicht festzustellen.

Nutzungsstatistiken elektronischer Zeitschriften: Entscheidungsgrundlage oder Spielwiese?

In this contribution based on the interpretation of usage statistics for electronic journals over a three year period different aspects are regarded. Included are changes in usage with time, connectivities between direct use and document delivery services, cost aspects for different disciplines and a possible interdependence between usage and impact factor.

Innerkonsortiale Kostenverrechnungsmethoden für elektronische Informations - ressourcen

In this contribution different possibilities to handle the internal cost distribution amongst various participants within a consortium are regarded. Either the cross access fee model or the calculation on the basis of FTEs are taken into consideration as well. The distribution is based on the usage principle, because between the different possible models it seems to be the most adequate solution. After basic theoretical reflections, the proposed models are calculated on the basis of two existing examples. Hereby it is shown that, depending on the preselected parameters, very different results could be possible. Which formulation is to be choosen greatly depends on factors which seem to be more political than based on pure economic objectives.

Automatisierte Katalogkonversion einer Leihverkehrsregion

For more than two decades retrospective conversion has only been understood as a process which enables existing catalogue entries to be collated directly or indirectly in an existing (union) database. Fundamental alternatives have only been known for a couple of years and are based on the combination of scanning and OCR processes. By introducing intelligent software it is now possible to correct the extensive read errors and to achieve good retrieval results. A project is presented here which transfers nearly 8 million entries in this way from 8 catalogues of the largest academic libraries in the state of Hesse. The costs have been calculated at 0,25 DM per card and the duration of the project is 3 years, whereby more than half of the entries (after just 2 years) are already accessible via a general WWW interface: http://retro.hebis.de.

The Art of Invention: EMEA Regional Council Meeting 10. und 11. Februar 2015, Florenz

Die regionale Gruppe des Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), bestehend aus den Mitgliedern aus Europa, dem Nahen und Mittleren Osten und Afrika (EMEA), hatte zum sechsten Mal zu ihrer regionalen Konferenz eingeladen. Nach Leiden, Frankfurt am Main, Birmingham, Straßburg und Kapstadt war nun Florenz der Tagungsort. Mit insgesamt 384 registrierten Teilnehmern aus 36 Ländern wurde ein neuer Rekord erreicht, und es ist nicht falsch zu behaupten, dass diese Konferenz auf dem besten Weg ist, sich zu einem europäischen Highlight im Bereich Bibliotheken, Archive und Museen zu entwickeln. Diese Aussage lässt sich sowohl anhand der Teilnehmerstruktur als auch der Themen der Vorträge durchaus erhärten. Organisatorisch war die Konferenz einmal in so genannte Breakout Talks andererseits in Plenary Sessions gegliedert. Bei den Breakout Talks handelte es sich um jeweils sechs Parallelveranstaltungen, wobei die Teilnehmer vorab bei der Registrierung jeweils angeben mussten, welche sie persönlich zu besuchen gedachten. Damit