Economic Implications of Alternative Scholarly Publishing Models Exploring the costs and benefits

TLDR: In this paper, the authors examined the costs and benefits of three alternative models for scholarly publishing - subscription publishing, open access publishing and self-archiving -and quantified the cost and benefit implications for each of the main players in the scholarly communication system.

Abstract: The aim of this project was to examine the costs and benefits of three alternative models for scholarly publishing - subscription publishing, open access publishing and self-archiving. The project involved two major phases: • Phase I: Identification of costs and benefits – sought to describe the three models of scholarly publishing, identify all the dimensions of cost and benefit for each of the models, and examine which of the main players in the scholarly communication system would be affected and how they would be affected; • Phase II: Quantification of costs and benefits – sought, where possible, to quantify the costs and benefits identified; identify and where possible quantify the cost and benefit implications for each of the main players in the scholarly communication system; and, where possible, compare the costs and benefits of the three models. While wide-ranging in scope, an important focus for the work was the implications of the three publishing models for UK higher education and fo r scholarly journal and book publishing – although other forms of publication and other stakeholders are included in the analysis.