The Future of Scholarly Publishing: Open Access and the Economics of Digitisation

The formal scientific communication system is currently undergoing significant change. This is due to four developments: the digitisation of formal science communication; the economisation of academic publishing as profit drives many academic publishers and other providers of information; an increase in the self-observation of science by means of publication, citation and utility-based indicators; and the medialisation of science as its observation by the mass media intensifies. Previously, these developments have only been dealt with individually in the literature and by science-policy actors.

The Future of Scholarly Publishing documents the materials and results of an interdisciplinary working group commissioned by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW) to analyse the future of scholarly publishing and to make recommendations on how to respond to the challenges posed by these developments.

As per the working group’s intention, the focus was mainly on the sciences and humanities in Germany. However, in the course of the work it became clear that the issues discussed by the group are equally relevant for academic publishing in other countries. As such, this book will contribute to the transfer of ideas and perspectives, and allow for mutual learning about the current and future state of scientific publishing in different settings.

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1003185

List of Abbreviations

Foreword to the English Edition

Introduction

1 Changes in Scientific Publishing: A Heuristic for Analysis | Niels Taubert & Peter Weingart (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1003215)

Part One: The Changing Scholarly Publishing System

2 Different from Discipline to Discipline: Diversity in the Scholarly Publication System | Konstanze Rosenbaum (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1003218)

3 Recent Processes of Change from the Perspective of Academic Publishers | Niels Taubert (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1003220)

4 On the Situation and Development of Academic Libraries | Peter Weingart (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1003225)

5 A Participatory Experiment in Science Policy: Results and Evaluation of the ‘Publication System’ Online Consultation | Niels Taubert & Kevin Schön (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1003227)

Part Two: Framing Conditions

6 Recommendations, Statements, Declarations and Activities of Science Policy Actors on Shaping the Scholarly Communication System | Ulrich Herb (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1003229)

7 Open Access: Effects on Publishing Behaviour of Scientists, Peer Review and Interrelations with Performance Measures | David Ball (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1003231)

8 Copyright and Changing Systems of Scientific Communication | Alexander Peukert & Marcus Sonnenberg (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1003233)

Part Three: Visions

Visions Concerning the Future of Publishing in Science

9 Electronic Publishing, Open Access, Open Science and Other Dreams | Martin Grötschel (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1003235)

10 A Vision of Scientific Communication | Reinhold Kliegl (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1003237)

11 Methodological Optimism Regarding the Digital Future: Critical Remarks on the Recommendations on the Future of the Scholarly Communication System | Volker Gerhardt (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1003239)

12 Trust, Quality Assurance and Open Access: Predatory Journals and the Future of the Scholarly Publication System | Peter Weingart (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1003241)

13 Publishing in German Sociology in the Year 2030 | Niels Taubert (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1003243)