Open-Access Scholarly Publishing in Economic Perspective

Malcolm Getz

No 414, Vanderbilt University Department of Economics Working Papers from Vanderbilt University Department of Economics

Abstract: What is the prospect for migrating scholarly journals from paper to digital formats in a way that lowers university expenditures? Although many journals are published digitally, at least so far, the digital format complements paper, increasing university expenditures. Open-access publications that are free to readers and financed by publication fees paid by authors and their agents may both lower costs and allow scholarship to reach a larger audience. However, gains to universities may depend on open-access being quality-assured and controlled by not-for-profit publishers. Potential savings for a typical US research library might be on the order of $2.3 million per year even as the same level of effort goes to reviewing and editing published articles as at present. To launch the initiative, provosts might adopt policies to support publication fees and not-for-profit publishers might invest in start up funds for editing and marketing open-access journals.

Keywords: electronic publishing; open access; digital library (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hpe
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:van:wpaper:0414

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