In the Spotlight

Assessing Open Access

Northwestern faculty members share their experiences

The Open Access (OA) movement, which promotes the principle that all scholarly research should be freely accessible online immediately after publication, has gained enormous international momentum in the seven years since it was first articulated in the Budapest Open Access Initiative. This year, the first international Open Access Week, from October 19 to October 23, is intended to extend awareness and understanding of OA publishing among scholars and the general public.

One of the greatest advantages of OA journals is that their online format generally enables them to publish faster than traditional print journals—an advantage especially in the sciences. Since they are freely accessible online, they also potentially offer a wider readership—often a particular advantage in interdisciplinary studies. And the technology offers another advantage traditional print journals don't: the possibility to publish work that is multi-media in nature.

Because the impact of OA publishing varies from discipline to discipline, we asked a range of Northwestern faculty members to answer a few questions about their experiences. Our respondents include William Halperin, a physicist; Jeffrey Ely, an economist; and John Bresland, a multi-media artist. Halperin and Ely serve as editors of OA journals in addition to having published work in them.

William Halperin is John Evans Professor of Physics. His research is focused on low-temperature physics, NMR studies of high-temperature superconductors, and fluid transport in porous media. He's one of two regional editors of the New Journal of Physics, an open access journal that has just celebrated its 10th anniversary. "Along with the editor-in-chief, Eberhard Bodenschatz," he says, "we have specific geographic responsibilities for Europe, Asia, and North America and are joined by 46 professional colleagues to make up the editorial board. When I was asked to participate in NJP seven years ago, open access for scientific journals was in its infancy and I had no prior experience with this publication medium myself."

Q: It seems like the technology of OA publishing--the fact that it facilitates speed and interactivity--makes it especially well suited to the needs of scientists (as opposed to, say, novelists).

A: Certainly you have identified one of the important aspects of most OA publications, which is speed, provided there is no print copy. NJP is solely distributed on-line; however, it is in principle possible to have both open access and print copies. An example of a print journal with open access is the "free to read" articles in the Physical Review journals published by the American Physical Society. However another important result of online OA publication is the symbiotic relationship with preprint repositories. OA publications can be directly linked to a preprint posted on a general access server such that the benefit of early announcement of scientific results in preprint form can be complemented by the final revised, refereed and published article, equally accessible to the reader.

Q: As an editor, can you provide some insight into the peer review process at OA journals? Is it comparable to the traditional journal process?

A: Peer review is managed very differently by different journals, but is essentially unrelated to whether the journal is open access or not. The main differences from one journal to another are the degree of editorial oversight in managing the refereeing process and whether the editorial board members are involved in this process or not. The NJP model is that the cadre of editors, who are active professional scientists, are all intimately involved in this process and are responsible for making the publication decisions.

Q: As OA continues to establish itself in the scholarly community, what challenges does it face?

A: The main difficulty facing open access journals today is to find an appropriate business plan. A high-quality journal has substantial overhead costs in handling all aspects of publishing articles, including the staff involved in refereeing, editing, 'typesetting,' and printing, digital or otherwise. For OA these costs are generally, but not uniquely, born by the authors in the form of article charges. For standard print copy journals, however, these costs are paid for by subscription, which means to a large extent by the libraries of the institutions that can afford it. Transferring cost to authors will always be problematic, except for the highest profile journals with a high impact factor.

Jeffrey C. Ely is Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Economics. He is co-editor of Theoretical Economics, an open access journal, and he co-writes the economics blog Cheap Talk.

Q: Where do you think OA journals stand relative to traditional journals in your field, in terms of professional acceptance, power, and prestige?

A: I know of only one prominent OA journal in economics and that is our journal, Theoretical Economics. In just a few years it has established a reputation as one of the top journals in the field of economic theory. As evidence of this, the journal has just recently come under the umbrella of one of the leading academic societies in economics, the Econometric Society, and a sister journal, Quantitative Economics, is being launched. QE will also be open access.

Q: And in your experience, does the OA format alter the standard peer review process for scholarly work?

A: In economics the peer-review process is characterized by long delays, intensive editing and evaluation by referees, and multiple revisions. At Theoretical Economics, the editorial process is essentially the same, yet the problems have been greatly reduced. I attribute this in large part to the sense of ownership of the journal that editors and referees feel. Most of the mainstream journals in economics have very high price tags and referees are rarely compensated for their work. This naturally tends to alienate referees and editors from the journal's mission. Our referees seem to value contributing their hard work to a journal whose undiluted objective is to maximize dissemination of research.

Q: In a field such as economics, which has so many interdisciplinary components, does OA offer particular advantages over traditional journals?

A: Pay-for-access journals put a barrier between researchers and others' research. This barrier is highest for those investigating new areas in other disciplines. Consequently a large benefit of open access will be in lowering interdisciplinary barriers.

John Bresland is an artist-in-residence in the creative writing program, where he teaches creative writing and new media. His essays have aired on public radio, and his video essays can be seen online at Ninth Letter and Blackbird. His print essays can be read in North American Review, Hotel Amerika, Minnesota Monthly and elsewhere.

Q: While scholars in other fields may be subsidized by their teaching positions, artists traditionally hope to support themselves by selling their work--and even that's a hard goal to achieve. How can artists ever hope to support themselves if they make their work available for free online?

A: It’s hard for me to imagine any artist of any calibre earning a living by posting her work online for free. Even big film studios with built-in audiences numbering in the millions, with their vast economic resources, haven’t yet figured out how to turn their millions of YouTube viewers into revenue (though I suspect they will soon enough — content deals are being signed as we speak). In any case, if Hollywood can’t figure out how to make money online, I can’t see myself cashing in my YouTube ad-word profits anytime soon and buying a sweet Bayliner with waterproof speakers. To my lights, the concept of FREE ONLINE for the artist is roughly the same as it is for a car dealership offering a free test drive: Get inside the product. Smell the smell. See how it handles. And either buy it or don’t. My point is, either way, whether you’re an artist or a car dealer, you must always be closing. Free is a means to an end.

Incidentally, there are plenty of happy instances of artists working hard for free, getting noticed for their toil, and turning that notoriety into a paying career. I’m thinking now of that Canadian kid who created the website Stuff White People Like, for free, and signed a book deal with Random House for three or four hundred thousand dollars. Or that woman who cooked all of Julia Child’s recipes, blogged about it — free — and then sold a book, and then came the movie. Both of these folks leveraged the viral nature of the internet. For a virus to be effective, it must also be free.

Q: Is your multi-media work better suited by nature for OA publication than, say, a traditional book or essay? Or do you think that even traditional print will eventually all give way to electronic publication?

A: I don’t know. And I don’t think anybody knows. That’s what’s so scary and strange about this shift from print to the screen, from books to iPhones and Kindles. Fifteen years ago, everybody rented videos at the video store, but we all knew that the neighborhood Blockbuster was doomed. We all knew that, soon enough, our entertainments would be downloaded. And sure enough, now they are — even though Netflix’s dominance in the marketplace reminds us that the lure of high-technology is nothing compared to the ease and simplicity of a dedicated device: a DVD player. Whatever it is that ends up partially replacing the book or magazine doesn’t exist today. But you get the feeling it’s on the horizon, don’t you? Still, books aren’t going anywhere — they’re good technology: tactile, simple, reliable. But they will yield shelf-space to another medium, and already have. When Elisabeth Sifton wrote about the book business a couple months ago in The Nation, she argued that a new kind of writing would likely emerge. She wrote that teachers and writing instructors are reporting big changes in their students' habits of attention and modes of expression: “This is why we must still ask, of the possibilities that 'books' could be offered in other formats or sold in new ways, what kind of imaginative energy, what kind of reading—or readers—will Scribd, Kindle, Sony Reader or other electronic devices attract in the years to come? And what kind of writing?” I agree completely.

Q: Do you continue to find it important to publish in traditional print publications?
Absolutely! And I believe “traditional” print publications will continue to behave less traditionally by building up their presence online, by featuring new works in different forms. You see this already with Blackbird, the online literary journal. Ten years ago, some folks might have considered it a lesser journal because it existed only online. You don’t hear that anymore. The Internet is a sensory-rich medium — it handles text quite well, and equally so with images and sound. The days of Fiction, Nonfiction and Poetry as the holy trinity of literature are nearly over, and I think most editors of print journals are mindful of that. If they’re not, well, they’re just whistling in the dark.

Northwestern, Evanston Public Library Collaborate on Exhibit of Imaginary Children's Books

October 12, 2009--Northwestern University Library and Evanston Public Library have teamed up to bring a unique exhibit of original children’s book art to the Chicago area. “An Imaginary Library: Children's Books That Don't Exist (Yet)” brings together 75 original paintings, sketches, and drawings by children's book artists from thirty different countries. Among them are many of the world's most successful and best-known artists for children, including Americans Peter Sis, David Wiesner, and Vladimir Radunsky. These artists were invited by the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany, to create an original book cover for a book that does not exist—but which someday the artist would like to create. In addition to the original artwork, the artists have supplied enough context or plot to provoke both child and adult visitors to the exhibit to use their imagination—and co-create the book, with the artists as their partners.

"An Imaginary Library" opened Friday, October 9 at the Evanston Public Library for a three-month run.

"We are so excited to partner with Northwestern in bringing this stellar exhibit to the Evanston community," says Evanston Public Library Director Mary Johns. "The international flavor captures the imagination and reaffirms the common appeal of children's literature and art."

The exhibit, which has already been staged in Japan, Greece, and Iran, had its American debut earlier in October in St. Charles. It was featured at the 8th annual regional conference of USBBY—the United States Board on Books for Young People—which brought together 250 children's librarians, authors, publishers, and other professionals from around the world to discuss international children's books. Regional sponsors of the conference included National Louis University and Dominican University's Butler Center for Children's Literature, and the Northwestern University Library.

Illustration: Too Proud a Snail, by French artist Eric Battut