Hybrid open access journal

A newly popular variation on open access journals is the Hybrid Open Access Journal. This refers to a journal where only some of the articles are open access. This status typically requires the payment of a publication fee (also called a processing fee) to the publisher.

Terminology

Hybrid OA Journal seems to be the customary term, although OA by the Article, Optional OA and Paid Option for OA have also been used. Open Choice, which properly means Springer's scheme, is sometimes used as the generic. From its originators, it has also been called the Walker-Prosser model for open access journals.

Open Access may be defined differently by different publishers. Open access involves more than free access. Permission barriers should also be minimized. For example, there are various versions of Creative Commons Licenses. The most restrictive of the six main Creative Commons Licenses allows anyone to download authors' works and share them with others, provided that the works are properly attributed and linked back to the original authors, and also provided that the works aren't changed in any way, nor used commercially. Other licenses are more accommodating.

History

The concept was first proposed a few years ago. Thomas Walker first suggested that authors could purchase extra visibility at a price.^[1] The first journal recognized as using this plan was Walker's own Florida Journal of Entomology; it was later extended to the other publications of the Entomological Society of America. The idea was later refined by David Prosser in 2003^[2] in the journal Learned Publishing.

Publishers and names

Each publisher that offers this plan uses a distinctive name. The SHERPA/RoMEO site provides a list of publishers and the names of their plans: Publishers with Paid Options for Open Access

Some examples are listed below:

• AlphaMed Press: Open Access Option (described in the Information for Authors).
• American Chemical Society: ACS AuthorChoice.
• American Dairy Science Association: Open Access at JDS.
• American Institute of Physics: Author Select.
• American Physical Society: Free to Read.
• American Physiological Society: AuthorChoice.
• American Society of Animal Science: Open Access option.
• American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology: Author Choice Option.
• American Society of Hematology: ASH Author Choice.
• American Society of Limnology and Oceanography: Free Access Publication.
• American Society of Neuroradiology: Open Access Option.
• American Society of Plant Biologists: Open Access Experiment.
• BMJ Publishing Group Ltd: BMJ Unlocked.
• Cambridge University Press: Cambridge Open Option.
• Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press: Open Access Option.
• Elsevier: Sponsored Article.
• Inderscience: Author Open Access Option.
• International Union of Crystallography: IUCr Open Access.
• John Wiley & Sons: OnlineOpen.
• Karger Publishers: Author's Choice.
• Longwoods Publishing: Optional Open Access.
• Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.: Liebert Open Option.
• Mineralogical Society of America: (described under the heading: Open-access and self-archiving).
• Nature Publishing Group: open-access option.
• Nature Publishing Group (British Journal of Cancer): BJC OPEN.
• Nature Publishing Group (British Journal of Pharmacology): BJP Open.
• Nature Publishing Group (The EMBO Journal): EMBO Open.
• NRC Research Press: OpenArticle.
• Oxford University Press: Oxford Open.
• Portal de Revistas de El Colegio de México
• Royal Society (UK): EXiS Open Choice.
• Royal Society of Chemistry (UK): RSC Open Science.
• SAGE Publications: SAGE Open.
• Society for Endocrinology: Free Access Option.
• Spandidos Publications: (mentioned at the end of: Information for Authors.
• SPIE: (described under the heading: SPIE adds to open-access suite with JBO delayed-open option, NIH deposits).
• Springer: Open Choice.
• Taylor & Francis: iOpen Access.
• United States National Academy of Sciences: PNAS Open Access Option.
• Wiley-Blackwell: OnlineOpen.
• World Scientific: WorldSciNet OPEN ACCESS.

See also Category:Hybrid open access journals

Postulated effect on subscription prices

Since one of the proposed sources for the necessary funds for open access articles might be the library subscription budget, there needs to be a decrease in the subscription cost to the library. Therefore, the article payments must not merely add to the normal subscription cost, but rather reduce the cost. For example, the Open Access Authors Fund of the University of Calgary Library (2009/09) requires that: "To be eligible for funding in this [hybrid Open Access] category, the publisher must plan to make (in the next subscription year) reductions to the institutional subscription prices based on the number of Open Access articles in those journals. To date, the only publishers that have done this are Oxford University Press, which has reduced subscription fees for the hybrid journals in its Oxford Open program, and the American Institute of Physics, which has done the same for its Author Select program. Other publishers may follow this lead in the future". On 12 November 2009, Nature Publishing Group (NPG) issued this news release: Open Access uptake prompts 9% price reduction for The EMBO Journal and EMBO reports. On 13 November 2009, critical comments^{[dead link]} about the news release were posted, by a university librarian, to the LIS-E-RESOURCES discussion list.

University funds to support open access journals

Some universities have funds designed to pay publication fees of fee-based open access journals. Of these, some will pay publication fees of hybrid open access journals. However, policies about such payments differ. The Open Access Directory provides a list of university funds that support open access journals, and provides information about which funds will pay fees of hybrid OA journals.

A report on work carried out by the University of Nottingham, since 2006, to introduce and manage an institutional open access fund has been published by Stephen Pinfield in Learned Publishing (Jan 2010). In this article, the author comments that: "As publishers’ income has increased from OA fees in the hybrid model, there has been little or no let up in journal subscription inflation, and only a small minority of publishers have yet committed to adjusting their subscription prices as they receive increasing levels of income from OA options."

Advantages and disadvantages for the publisher

One of the difficulties with "full" open access journals, or the subset of them that charge author-side fees, is the difficulty of getting started. The publisher must be ready to take the risk of not having subscription income, in the hope that payments will materialize. But with a hybrid open access journal, the publisher only provides open access to those articles for which the payment is made. To the extent the plan succeeds, the publisher has an adequate revenue stream from fees. To the extent that it fails, the publisher has an adequate revenue stream from subscriptions.

Advantages and disadvantages to the author

The author wanting to publish in an open access journal, is not limited to the relatively small number of "full" open access journals, but can also choose from the available hybrid open access journals, which includes journals published by many of the largest academic publishers.

The author must still find the money. Many funding agencies are ready to let authors use grant funds, or apply for supplementary funds, to pay publication fees at Open Access journals. (Only a minority of Open Access journals charge such fees, but nearly all hybrid Open Access journals do so.) So far, the funding agencies that are willing to pay these fees do not distinguish between full and hybrid open access journals. On 19 October 2009, one such funding agency, the Wellcome Trust, expressed concerns about hybrid open access fees being paid twice, through subscriptions and through publication fees: Wellcome Trust calls for greater transparency from journals on open access publishing costs.

Variations

The American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) has adopted a unique policy that articles contributed by society members to its journal, Plant Physiology, will be made Open Access immediately upon publication at no additional charge. Non-member authors can receive OA through payment of $1,000, but since membership is only $115/year, it is expected this initiative will boost membership.

See also

• Open access publishing
• Scientific journal
• Scientific literature

References

1. ^ Walker, Thomas (1998). "Free Internet Access to Traditional Journals". American Scientist 86 (5): 463. doi:10.1511/1998.5.463. 
2. ^ David Prosser (2003). "From here to there: a proposed mechanism for transforming journals from closed to open access". Learned Publishing 16 (3): 163. doi:10.1087/095315103322110923. http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00001179/. 

External links

• Nine questions for hybrid journal programs by Peter Suber, SPARC Open Access Newsletter, issue #101, September 2, 2006.

• More on society publishers with OA journals by Peter Suber, Open Access News, November 3, 2007.

• When Is Open Access Not Open Access? by Catriona J. MacCallum, PLoS Biology, 2007; 5(10): e285.