2.3 A Transition to Fair Open Access with Return on Investment: LingOA, MathOA & PsyOA

On the 27th of May, 2016, the EU Council proposed that a move to full open-access should be achieved by 2020. Clearly, new publishing models are needed if the transition to open access is to be both swift and affordable. Various routes are being explored at the moment, from OA offsetting deals with the commercial publishers to transitioning existing subscription journals to an open-access model.

Linguistics in Open Access (LingOA) is an example of the latter route. LingOA aims at switching prestigious journals in linguistics from subscription to Fair Open Access. In this endeavor, the LingOA journals are supported for five years by a grant from the Netherlands, while their long-term financial sustainability is assured by the consortial library model of the Open Library of Humanities (OLH). At this moment, the LingOA Fair Open Access transition model is being extended to two other disciplines, mathematics and psychology.

Our new programs consist of three elements:

1. Creating a MathOA and a PsyOA foundation alongside LingOA.
2. Flipping journals in mathematics, psychology, and linguistics through partnerships with a range of publishers.
3. Make use of a consortium of libraries on the model of the Open Library of Humanities (OLH) for long-term underwriting of APCs, market price-pressure, and sustainability.

The Fair Open Access (FAO) model is designed to provide three core features:

• A transition to Open Access under favorable terms (Fair Open Access): MathOA and PsyOA will closely follow the structure set up by LingOA: journal editors and experts in the respective fields will lead both organizations, convincing other editors of the need to move to Fair Open Access by using their personal networks and by setting the same conditions designed to ensure that publishers do not exert undue control over publication venues, see www. lingoa.eu.
• Achieving a transition to OA with a range of publishers: Applications to publish journals in Fair Open Access are available to any publisher who can meet the conditions set out by LingOA. Recent partnerships between LingOA, OLH, Ubiquity Press, Pacini (It) and the University of Wales Press demonstrate the viability of such partnerships.
• Market price sensitivity and competition to provide cost benefits and achieve Return on Investment: The current scholarly communications environment is poor at providing downward pressure on costs for APCs. In the LingOA model, the OLH in-house publishing operation provides a comparison price point for the cost of publishing that other publishers are asked to match. This means that Fair Open Access is not only about flipping prestigious subscription journals to Open Access, it is also about increasing pressure on the commercial publishers to start providing their services on fair and transparent conditions. A calculation over 10 years shows a significant worldwide Return on Investment, since the journals that have transitioned to Fair Open Access no longer require subscription and operate at a much lower cost than that of the subscription model.