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Open access: Extending the Wellcome Trust policy to include monographs and book chapters - FAQ

Authors Kathleen Fitzpatrick Abstract Debates about open-access scholarly publishing often focus on the costs of scholarship, whether costs incurred by publishers in producing books and journals or costs faced by libraries in acquiring those publications. Taking those costs as the centre of such discussions often results in an impasse, as the financial realities of publishing-particularly within disciplines that are less well-funded than STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics)-seem to present an insurmountable obstacle to greater openness. What if, however, we were to refocus the discussion on values rather than costs? How might such a shift in focus lead us to think differently about the motives and benefits involved in scholarly communication, and how might this lead us to recognize the generosity that keeps the engine running? Keywords open access, scholarly communication, generosity, Research Works Act (RWA), Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI), humanities publishing

"Authors John T. Seaman, Jr., Margaret B. W. Graham Abstract This article analyses the origins, development, and impact of Gutenberg-e, a digital publishing program in historical scholarship sponsored by the American Historical Association (AHA), with the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Intended as an experiment in developing and legitimizing new modes of historical scholarship, Gutenberg-e quickly evolved, under pressure to become economically sustainable, into a traditional publishing enterprise bent on making books cheaper and paying for itself in the process. Digital technology, which had the power to transform the whole scholarly enterprise, instead became a means to shore up the existing system of scholarly publishing, with all its flaws intact. Though Gutenberg-e has much to teach us about the costs and consequences of that system, especially for the scholars it is meant to serve, it also offers a glimpse of an alternative future. Almost in spite of itself, Gutenberg-e produced a handful of innovative works of digital scholarship, experimented with new forms of scholarly collaboration and community, and highlighted the opportunities of an expanded audience for specialized academic work. These modest achievements suggest the potential of digital technology to create things which scholars value and thereby sustain the scholarly enterprise over the long term. Keywords digital publishing, innovation, research libraries, university presses, scholarly communications, open access, monographs, sustainability "