Most major journal publishers now offer a hybrid business model including some form of Gold OA (where authors are charged to make a particular article open access).
However, there are concerns about the transparency of the hybrid business model (for example that access fees are being paid twice, through subscriptions and through publication fees) and that publishers may not be lowering their subscription rates to reflect increases in income from open access fees.
To address these concerns, we have started work on a database of open access articles funded by UK academia and published by NESLi2 publishers since January 2009. This will enable us to calculate the expenditure by UK Higher Education institutions on Gold OA fees by NESLi2 publisher.
To make this project a success, we need you to provide data on Gold OA articles authored by members of your institution and published from January 2009, and fees paid, as soon as possible. We are currently contacting institutions but please feel free to contact Vicky Legge with information, or if you have any queries.
The data gathered will be invaluable for NESLi2 negotiations, and will help us to ensure that subscription fees are adjusted to reflect the income publishers obtain from open access fees. It will also enable us to identify and share good practice among academic institutions, publishers and funders.
This is a very important project, and we will be most grateful for your support.
