However, this situation resists a facile conclusion that Open Access journals can significantly change the equilibrium prices in this market, as quality journals incur significant publication costs and do not differ significantly in their reviewing, editing and submission practices from subscription-based journals, as far as unpaid labor input is concerned. In other words, Open Access journals will have to have article processing charges (APCs) compensate for the lost revenue streams that toll-based journals derive from subscription fees. In turn, this leads to a relatively minor impact that the advent of Open Access has had on the market-wide equilibrium prices that end up being charged for article publication and access either directly or indirectly.
In other words, while the arm’s length principle, i.e., the independence of journal publishers and their editorial teams from universities and research institutions, has ultimately ensured the quality of the more reputed academic journals across multiple fields of inquiry, hybrid Open Access journals published via partnerships between recognized publishers and academic societies may prove as attractive as their subscription-based journals with reduced fees, such as Oikos that Wiley and Nordic Society Oikos jointly publish.
It is notable that the hybrid Open Access model is slated to find a wider application in Africa, where the Kenya-based African Academy of Sciences (AAS) has partnered with the London-based F1000Research publishing platform to announce the launch of AAS Open Research as essentially a mega-journal that will provide Open Access to scholarly articles, data sets, empirical research protocols and other scholarly output, while using streamlined publication procedures in combination with open peer review. This initiative will join AOSIS, a South Africa-based Open Access journal publisher. Furthermore, to ensure its economic sustainability, AAS Open Research will prioritize submissions from AAS-related scholars and those funded by Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Africa.
This indicates that this initiative is likely to fall into the domain of hybrid Open Access with the AAS Open Research platform acting as a mega-journal that seeks to substitute subscriptions with local and international funder partnerships, while maintaining APCs as a basis of its long-term sustainability. Thus, as the partnerships of F1000 with global foundations, e.g., the Wellcome Trust and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, show, in both developed and developing countries Open Access will only marginally affect the effective equilibrium prices in the journal publishing market.
Featured Image Credits: “Sculpture by El Anatsui: Earth developing more roots, 2011 (Aluminium bottle caps, copper wire)” / Sakshi Gallery / Art Basel Hong Kong 2013 / SML.20130523.6D.14115, May 23, 2013 | © Courtesy of See-ming Lee.