JISC Collections Invitation to Tender: OAPEN-UK - Revised version following Publisher Briefing Event
In October JISC Collections released the OAPEN-UK ITT. This tender invites publishers of scholarly monographs in the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) to participate in the OAPEN-UK project and to submit titles for inclusion in the Noah experiment.
On the 27 October, JISC Collections invited interested publishers to attend a briefing event to learn about the OAPEN-UK project and to discuss the ITT.
Lorraine Estelle, CEO of JISC Collections introduced the OAPEN-UK project and the role of JISC Collections. Eelco Ferwerda of Amsterdam University Press provided a presentation about the Open Access Publishing in European Networks (OAPEN) project and the new OAPEN Library platform (view the presentation). Caren Milloy, Head of Projects took publishers through the Noah experiment in detail (see presentation at http://prezi.com/pcq4e5c4c8mu/oapen-uk-itt/) and invited comment.
Since the Briefing Event, there has been some discussion on the Scholarly Kitchen regarding the project. JISC Collections has responded to these comments and is looking into the discussion regarding statistical validity.
OAPEN-UK is a collaborative experiment between researchers, authors, librarians, publishers and research councils. The project will be managed by JISC Collections who represent the library community and have an in-depth understanding of the publishing community through years of negotiation, licensing and previous projects. JISC Collections has learnt from previous e-book projects that it is critical to include all stakeholders if you are to attain results that will be of use and trusted.
Publishers that have titles selected for inclusion in the project will therefore be invited to join the Steering Group but only after the marking process is complete and funding has been awarded. The Steering Group is already formed and includes researchers, librarians, industry experts and representatives from the AHRC and ESRC. The Steering Group will guide the project and their advice will be used to ensure that the Noah experiment is conducted in a professional and non-biased manner.
The Noah experiment itself works by randomly assigning a title from each of the matched pairs submitted by publishers into either the Experimental Group or the Control Group. Titles in the Experimental group will be made available in OA on the OAPEN Library and if the publisher wishes, on their own websites. Users will be able to download the PDF free, but will be charged for print versions and e-book device versions such as epub. The Control Group titles will be made available for sale through the publishers own platform or aggregator platforms according to standard processes. In addition, the print will be on sale as will an e-book device friendly version. Although this does mean a lot of variables in the experiment, it will reflect the real world environment. In addition, the whole premise of Open Access is that it is available to all and therefore it is not appropriate to restrict an OA title to just one platform.
The issue of back list versus front list was raised at the briefing event. The Noah experiment asks for titles published between 2006 and 2011. In the original ITT, JISC Collections had said between January 2006 and February 2011, this was to ensure the titles are ready for placement on the relevant platforms for launch in May 2011. However, if publishers are confident a title published in April 2011 will be ready for launch online in May 2011, they are more than welcome to include this title.
JISC Collections asks publishers to consider very carefully the titles that they submit. Submitting an older title will provide us with contextual and quantitative historic data although there is a possibility that it may have already saturated its market. On the other hand it may also show if OA rejuvenates sales and whether disruption occurs. Submitting a title that is new will allow us to monitor the title from its launch until 2014 but we will not have any history to compare it to. So JISC Collections welcomes older titles and newer titles.
Publishers present also suggested that in order to be able to match the titles into a pair, it is important to consider format history and the price of the titles. This has been added into the ITT.
The last change to the ITT in response to the Briefing Event was to collect retail sales data from sellers such as Amazon. Again, this has been added into the ITT.
Publishers will receive funding for each matched pair of titles that is selected. This funding is awarded in recognition of the risk that will be taken and the effort required in collecting all the data for the experiment.
JISC Collections continue to welcomes feedback and comments from publishers, librarians, researchers and authors regarding the experiment. The fact that this is a collaborative project ensures that no single group will steer it, rather the Steering Group will ensure that while all views will be considered, the research and methodology remains impartial.
Thank you to those that attended the Briefing Event.
