OPEN ACCESS PUBLISHING:
THE PROS AND CONS (OR)
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY
Gaetano R. Lotrecchiano, EdD, PhD
GWU Health Sciences Lunch and Learn Series, Sept. 24, 2014
Worldview and what to expect…
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Polarized Issue
An objective overview (evidence based when
possible)
SOME of the issues in this vast and growing
consideration of the role of OA
A look from both sides of the “webpage” (as
authors and institutions AND as publishers)
Ultimately….You Decide!
Information: Definitions and Resources
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In the next 40
minutes…
Reasons for publishing
 The role of OA
 The Pros (The Good)
 The Cons (The Bad)
 The Dark Side (The
Ugly)
 You Decide…
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Electronic Resources
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As Per slide
Materials
OA Definitions
(Handout)
 Citation Advantage of
OA (Handout)
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Open Discussion…(5 mins)
So…Why do we
publish?
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What is Open Access Publishing?
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Guy’s Definitions…
A rapidly emerging system of publishing that allows
greater flexibility and access to peer (and non-peer)
reviewed information that is www-based.
An internet-based tool to ensure greater dissemination
to larger and more diverse groups of readers.
Print/subscription/traditional journals that offer open
access ($-consumer/library)
Electronic OA journals ($-by the author/institution)
See handout for some of the emerging language
(definitions)…
What does Open Access (OA) bring to
the table of publishing?
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Flexibility
Global Perspective and Delivery of Scholarship
Publishing Reform
Concerns about Intellectual Property (IP) concerns
Issues about Sustainability and Archiving
“Green” publishing
More rapid publication turn around.
Technological Advantages
Lack of regulation
The and list goes on…both good and bad, and ugly
The Good…
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Dissemination to a wider/international audience
(Click and Read!)
Sometimes Quicker turn around time from submission
to publication
The Good…
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Easy access by the knowledge community (and the
public) who really want your work!
Greater likelihood of being cited
 See
Handout
The Good…
Antelman, K (2004) Do open-access articles have a greater
research impact? College & Research Libraries 65(5), 372382.
Because comparing
means of highly skewed
distributions can be
misleading, the citation
distributions or each
population were
examined to see if
there was a difference.
The box plots in figure
1 show that across all
disciplines the
distribution of number
of citations indicates
that articles in the
open-access sample
have higher citation
counts.
The Good…
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Publishing Innovations (sights, sounds, colors, and
animations)
Stipelman BA, Hall KL, Zoss A, Okamoto J, Stokols D, Börner K (2014) Mapping the Impact of Transdisciplinary Research: A Visual
Com- parison of Investigator-Initiated and Team-Based Tobacco Use Research Publications. J Transl Med Epidemiol 2(2): 1033.
http://www.jscimedcentral.com/TranslationalMedicine/translationalmedicine-spidcollaboration-science-translational-medicine-1033.pdf
The Good…
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Often maintain the copyright in the author’s name
Freedom and ease to circulate to micro-communities
and non-academic partners
Solution to the ‘Serial Crisis’
 cost
increases of journals and subscriptions
 Housing journals
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Shift of economics from the consumer to the
institution or individual publishing.
The Good…
JCR Year and Edition: 2013 Science
Abbreviated Journal Title
eLife
Journal of Medical Internet Research
PLoS One
Implementation Science
BMC Bioinformatics
BMC Public Health
BMC Medical Research Methodology
BMJ Open
BMC Health Services Research
BMC Medical Ethics
BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making
BMC Medical Education
Scientific World Journal
Impact Factor
8.519
4.669
3.534
3.470
2.672
2.321
2.168
2.063
1.659
1.600
1.496
1.409
1.219
The Bad…
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Wide diversity of Publication fees and schedules
Publisher
Fee
Type
American Society of Microbiology
$2,000 (members) $3,000 (nonmembers)
Association (print and OA)
$730 - $2,505 (15% reduction for
UCB authors due to UCB
membership)
ALL OA publisher
Nature Publishing Group
$1,350
Print and OA
SAGE
$0 (UC Berkeley authors pay no
open access fee due to Berkeley
Research Impact Initiative
sponsorship of all UC Berkeley
submissions.
Print and OA
$1,850 - $3,000
Print and OA
BioMed Central
Wiley Open Access
Note the special arrangement for
members/non-members
Note the special arrangement for
individual authors and members.
Note the special arrangement for
institution
Note the variability between different
publications of the same publisher
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/scholarlycommunication/oa_fees.html
The Bad…
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Not economically sustainable-for individuals or
organizations
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Negative Impact on Learning Societies versus Research
Intensive Societies
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Budgeting for publications fees
Learning Societies: Lack of economic structures to sustain
dissemination
Research Societies: More sponsored outlets to sustain OA
“Double Dipping” (yes…even credible publishers)
Lack of Governing rules
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Publishing is a system of trust
Trust can be broken and exploited
The Bad…
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Conflict of Interests (pay for publishing)
Letter to the Editor (N Engl J Med 2013; 369:491August 1, 2013)
Open access generates numerous legal issues concerning ownership of intellectual property, licensing, embargo
periods, consent, copyright expiration of older literature, “fair use” policies, indexing and archiving, and
preservation of works. None of these issues, however, are as challenging as delivering rigorous scrutiny of
potential conflicts of interest, which is an important hallmark of high-quality competitors that use traditional
publishing models. The open-access model, in and of itself, need not diminish scientific rigor, selectivity, or
peer review: journals can use the same standards and procedures for the acceptance of scholarly submissions
whether the delivery medium involves restricted access (either in print or online) or open access in digital form.
But when the journal is not constrained by size and each additional article generates more processing revenue
(whether it be from authors, grants, or institutions), the incentive may be to publish more, not less. The overall
lower rejection rate described in these Perspective articles raises concern about the potential for publication
of lower-quality studies.
With a model that thrives on soliciting greater numbers of submissions, the scrutiny of conflict of interest may
be diluted; this may invite the pharmaceutical industry to take advantage of relaxed journal standards to
ghostwrite articles and obscure its participation in the drug trials, analysis of the data, or both. Qualified peer
reviewers are already at a premium, and more volume risks compromise in review. Scholarly journals would, we
hope, resist the temptation to lower publication standards and accept weaker submissions or those with
conflict-of-interest issues. Nevertheless, the inherent conflict of interest in the “author pays” model cannot be
ignored. Professional editors and experienced staff are required to ferret out conflicts of interest; this
expensive labor and sophisticated protocols do not always factor into the open-access model.
The Ugly…
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Suspicious, Suspect, or Questionable Journals
 The
Internet is a dark place…and getting darker!
 Some journal have bad reputations and prey on
scholars (predatory journals)
 http://scholarlyoa.com/2014/03/20/misleading-
metrics-a-new-list-on-this-blog/
 http://scholarlyoa.com/individual-journals/
The Ugly…
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Questionable Review Processes
 Not
knowing the reviewing priorities
 Bogus reviewers
 Weak or non-existent criteria
 Beware of quick turnaround reviews
 Beware of unknown or fictitious editors
The Ugly…
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Theft
 Journal
Identity theft
 Published since 1951
 Hijacked
 Been trying to get the offending
website closed down without
success
 Not able to afford the legal fees
 The legitimate journal created a
brand-new website in August
2014
http://www.jokulljournal.com/
The Ugly…
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Theft
 Author
Identity theft
 Turning over
copyrights to bogus
authorities
 Fake editor
 Breach of Trust
 Your work can show
up somewhere else
with someone else’s
name on it.
What to do and where to learn more?
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Use the Internet for Good…
 Search,
check, recheck
 Be Cautious NOT cynical. OA is NOT going away
 If an offer sounds too good it is too good.
 Get to know the editor(s), journal, other contributors
 Check the physical location of the journal and their
willingness to communicate openly and in a timely manner
 Get to know their practices up front
 Maintain high personal and ethical integrity
What to do and where to learn more?
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GWU Guide to Scholarly Publishing: Controversy
Surrounding Open Access
Publishinghttp://libguides.gwumc.edu/c.php?g=27
848&p=170644.
Scholarly Open Access: Critical Analysis of
Scholarly Open Access Publishing.
http://scholarlyoa.com/
Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association
http://oaspa.org/
Directory of Open Access Journals.
http://doaj.org/
Call Me…
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Gaetano R. Lotrecchiano, EdD, PhD
glotrecc@gwu.edu
202-994-9855