New Model for Scholarly Publishing

[jason]

Ex-Lemmingworks. ##.

Inside Higher Ed :: New Model for Scholarly Publishing

It’s hard to attend scholarly meetings these days without someone talking about the “crisis of scholarly publishing,” which goes something like this: Libraries can’t afford to buy new scholarly books; in turn, university presses can’t afford to publish books no one can buy and so cut back on their sales of monographs; in turn, junior professors can’t get their first books published and have a tough time getting tenure.

Rice University on Thursday announced a plan to shake up those interconnected problems. Rice University Press, which was killed in 1996, will be revived. But unlike every other university press, it will publish all of its books online only. People will be able to read the books for no charge and to download them for a modest fee. Editors will solicit manuscripts and peer review panels will vet submissions — all in ways that are similar to the systems in traditional publishing.

Personally, I don’t know why people don’t use Open Journal Systems which I’ve been using for a few years with The Harrow. Of course, the real problem is that if your tenure committee will not count electronic publications, it is all just a waste of time. That is until after you get tenure. [Thanks for pointing me to this Rochelle!]