1. Breakout Session: Should You Consider Transitioning Your Journal to Open Access?
Dagmar M. Meyer
Policy Adviser, European Research Council Executive Agency (ERCEA)
ISMTE 2016 European Conference
31 October – 1 November, 2016
Brussels Downtown Sheraton

2. Disclaimer:
I am contributing to this conference in a personal capacity.
All opinions expressed are my own. They do not necessarily coincide with those of the European Research Council (Scientific Council or Executive Agency), or with those of the European Commission.

3. Aims of this session: Introduction: Sharing of real-life experiences:
motivations for considering a ‘flip’;
challenges and opportunities; specific issues to address;
approaches and scenarios.
Sharing of real-life experiences:
Success factors
Risks
Benefits
The introduction is strongly inspired by the recent review by David Solomon et al on ‘Converting Scholarly Journals to Open Access’ (see last slide for reference).

4. Motivations (I): Increased readership
Removing financial barriers, especially where journal not included in subscription packages
Increased number of submissions and published articles
Greater visibility may lead to more submissions. Online only allows removal of limitation on number of articles published.
Increased scientific quality (?)
Could be consequence of greater number of submissions (greater pool to choose from)

5. Motivations (II): Securing public journal subsidies
Transition to open access sometimes prerequisite for subsidies, or opportunity for additional subsidies
Securing journal independence (?)
Maybe not so much a motivation but a consequence?
Increased revenue and financial viability
Depending on subscription base and financial situation, and business model chosen (APC based or not)
Promoting other products or services
Advertising and cross-marketing of products

6. Challenges and opportunities:
Managing the transition process requires
meticulous preparation;
broad communication;
change management.
Transition offers opportunity to
rebrand and modify scope of journal;
change publisher or move towards self-publishing;
reconsider relevant infrastructure;
revisit and revise related policies in order to maximize benefits.

7. Steps in the transition process (I):
Financial planning and analysis; impact assessment
New business model must be viable and provide resources needed to operate the journal. Scalability?
Marketing strategy to ensure maximum visibility
Timing of ‘flip’ in the year
Informing and consulting stakeholders
Work out process to deal with subscribers (individual and bundles)
Survey among potential authors and readers to find out reactions and concerns

8. Steps in the transition process (II):
Articles in the pipeline and back issues
Transition period will have to accommodate articles still submitted under subscription system. Waivers?
Opening up content in back issues – can be a challenge (licensing?) especially if moving publisher at the same time
Common issues specific to society journals
Lack of expertise or scale to publish journal(s) efficiently
Lack of bargaining power to get favorable contract terms from professional publishers
Need clear understanding of function and context of journal(s)
Clarity of envisaged future role of journal(s)

9. Approaches and scenarios (I):
APC based - gradual conversion:
hybrid open access (with offsetting mechanism)
bundling APCs with subscription licences (transparency?)
delayed open access with staggered fees
Cross-subsidizing:
paper version subsidizing open access version
spinning off well-defined section in open access subsidized by main subscription journal
submission fees in addition or instead of APCs (must be well-balanced; helps reduce number of low quality submissions)

10. Approaches and scenarios (II):
Specifically for society publishers:
subsidies from other activities (conferences etc.)
member contributions (donations) towards open access fund
Ways to reduce costs
move to low cost infrastructure
partnering with a low-cost external publisher or publishing service provider
volunteer effort (sustainability?)
joining regional / national journal platform (e.g. SciELO)
joining consortium or library partnership subsidy (e.g. OLH)

11. Key reference:
Solomon, David J., Mikael Laakso, and Bo-Christer Björk (authors). Peter Suber (editor) Converting Scholarly Journals to Open Access: A Review of Approaches and Experiences.
Available at in open access (CC BY)