Marc Scheufen

Academic Publishing and Open Access

With the spread of the internet and new opportunities for publishing academic works digitally at virtually no costs, the traditional copyright model has recently been put under critical review which is for at least two reasons: First and foremost, a vast increase in subscription prices for academic journals has forced (university) libraries to significantly cut their journal portfolios. Second, copyright seems negligible in academia as researchers are motivated by reputation gains and CV effects rather than direct financial returns from publishing their works. As a consequence, the promotion of Open Access (OA) to scientific research is claimed as the perceived future of academic publishing in the information age. This paper critically reviews the OA debate by discussing theoretical and empirical arguments on the role of copyright in publishing scientific outcomes. A brief historical perspective introduces to the changed environmental conditions for scholarly publishing, pointing to a new trade-off in the digital age. By framing the debate in a broader literature stream and related issues, we provide with caveat for further research and a glimpse of possible future scenarios. It is shown that copyright may be both a blessing and a curse in establishing an effective framework for scientific progress.

Academic Copyright in the Publishing Game: A Contest Perspective

As scientists are motivated by readership rather than by royalties, one might doubt that academic copyright is required for stimulating research. Consequently, establishing an open access regime is currently intensively being discussed. We contribute to the literature by using a contest-model in which differently talented researchers compete for limited journals space. The contest perspective adds a rent-seeking motive into the publishing game which questions that private incentives for research are always too low due to the positive externalities of scientific progress. In our model, open access always leads to higher social welfare when incentives are too high. When incentives are too low, then open access is only superior if the benefits from larger readership is sufficiently high.

The Economics of Open Access

Addressing the recent debate on how the future of academic publishing might look in a purely digital environment, this book analyzes the experiences of researchers with, as well as attitudes towards, ‘Open Access’ (OA) publishing. Drawing on a unique, in-depth survey with more than 10,000 respondents from 25 countries, Thomas Eger and Marc Scheufen discuss their findings in the light of recent policy attempts which have been trying to foster OA, revealing considerable shortcomings and lack of knowledge on fundamental features of the academic publishing market.

Does Online Access Promote Research in Developing Countries

Universities in developing countries have rarely been able to subscribe to academic journals in the past. The “Online Access to Research in the Environment” initiative (OARE) provides institutions in developing countries with free online access to more than 5,700 environmental science journals. Here we analyze the effect of OARE on scientific output in five developing countries. We apply difference-in-difference estimation using panel data for 18,955 articles from 798 research institutions. We find that online access via OARE increases publication output by at least 43% while lower-ranked institutions located in remote areas benefit less. Results are robust when we apply instrumental variables to account for information diffusion and Bayesian estimation to control for self-selection

Does Online Access Promote Research in Developing Countries? Empirical Evidence from Article-Level Data

Universities in developing countries have rarely been able to subscribe to academic journals in the past. The “Online Access to Research in the Environment” initiative (OARE) provides institutions in developing countries with free online access to more than 5,700 environmental science journals. We analyze the effect of OARE on scientific output in five developing countries. We apply difference-in-difference-in-differences estimation using a balanced panel with 161,450 observations derived from 36,202 journal articles published by authors affiliated with 2,490 research institutions. Our approach allows us to explore effects across scientific fields, i.e. OARE vs. non-OARE fields, within institutions and before and after OARE registration. We benefit from the fact that variation in online access to scientific literature is exogenous at the level of scientific fields. Additional self-selection issues are dealt with by using an endogenous binary variable model estimated by a Bayesian Markov-Chain-Monte-Carlo method. We provide evidence for a positive marginal effect of online access via OARE on publication output that ranges between +48% and +57%. Our results suggest that the most productive institutions benefit the most from OARE while the least productive institutions barely benefit from it.

On the Access Principle in Science: A Law and Economics Analysis

This section provides a comprehensive analysis comparing both systems from a social welfare point of view and hence asking whether academic publishing should be organized by means of a universal closed or open access mode. The first subsection is an extensive view on both regimes and their impact in the light of the publishing game and hence the prevailing “publish or perish”—environment in scientific research. The impact on researcher’s private incentives to write high quality papers will be investigated as well as the social welfare effects when shifting towards an universal OA regime. Several robustness checks and a model extension to think outside the box of the model’s inherent contest character provide a broad picture on the superiority of either regime. The second subsection picks up on the distributive effects from shifting towards an “author pays” principle when introducing OA as the dominant publishing mode, briefly highlighting some possible distortions that may result in an obviously heterogeneous world. In this regard, especially the consequences for developing countries will be addressed, providing the analytical framework for investigating the international political economy of access to scientific knowledge in Sect. 4.2 of this chapter.

Academic Journal Publishing and the Open Access Movement

In this section we elaborate on the general structure of the academic publishing market. In fact, it is important to understand how the academic publishing market and especially the journal publishing market has evolved over time. First, we will generally look at the principles of academic publishing, creating a basic understanding on the different models for scholarly publication and the players involved. Second, we will elaborate on the specific market characteristics. Facts and figures on the publishing model provide with a comprehensive overview on the immanent structure and changes of market characteristics in historical reflection. The implications drawn from this industry analysis lay the foundations when later reflecting on the effects of certain legislative or policy changes.

Conclusions and Further Research

In conclusion, there are several arguments to believe that the future of academic publishing should be open access. While Shavell (2010) finds that OA may strictly increase researcher’s incentives due to higher readership, our analysis also points to some countervailing effects of OA, especially when reconsidering Shavell’s assumption that most universities will cover the publication costs under an “author pays” model. We show that primarily due to rent seeking motives in the publishing game the incentives to exceed higher efforts may decrease. Nevertheless, we have stressed that this may just correct another distortion that the “publish or perish” environment in academia has enforced: namely the fact that “too many” papers are produced that are hardly ever read. Meho (2007) finds evidence for the fact that 90 % of all published papers are never cited and as many as 50 % of all papers are never read by anybody but the reviewer and the authors themselves. Moreover, we have pointed to the possible benefits but also the costs of OA publishing at the international level, especially when considering the position of developing countries.

The Future of Academic Publishing

Despite some countervailing effects of a shift from the CA to the OA model—which have to be taken into account closely in the process of reconceptualizing the predominant business model in academic publishing—there is one important conclusion from our analysis and the overall research on this intriguing topic: Open access should be the future of academic publishing (Finch 2012).

Some Fundamental Economics

Copyright—lat. copia, plenty or to make plenty—generally provides its rightholder with “an exclusive right to copy, reproduce, distribute, adapt, perform or display” (Scotchmer and Maurer 2006, p. 76) her works of creative expression.