Economics of open science
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The economics of open science describe the economic aspects of making a wide range of scientific outputs (publication, data, software) to all levels of society.
Open science involves a plurality of economic models and goods. Journals and other academic institutions (like learned societies) have historically favored a knowledge club or a toll access model: publications are managed as a community service for the selected benefit of academic readers and authors. During the second half of the 20th century, the "big 5" largest publishers (Elsevier, Springer, Wiley, Taylor & Francis and the American Chemical Society) have partly absorbed or outcompeted non-profits structure and applied an industrial approach to scholarly publishing.
The development of the web shifted the focus of scholarly communication from publication to a large variety of outputs (data, software, metrics). It also challenged the values and the organization of existing actors with the development of an international initiatives in favor of open access and open science. While initially distanced by new competitors, the main commercial publishers have started to flip to author-pay models after 2000, funded through article processing charges and the negotiation of transformative deals. Actors like Elsevier or Wiley have diversified their activities from journal ownership to data analytics by developing a vertical integration of tools, database and metrics monitoring academic activities. The structuration of a global open science movement, the enlargement of scientific readership beyond professional researchers and increasing concerns for the sustainability of key infrastructures has enabled the development of open science commons. Journals, platforms, infrastructures and repositories have been increasingly structured around a shared ecosystem of services and self-governance principles.
The costs and benefits of open science are difficult to assess due to the coexistence of several economic models and the untraceability of open diffusion. Open publishing is less costly overall than subscription models, on account of reduced externalities and economies of scale. Yet the conversion of leading publishers to open science has entailed a significant increased in article processing charges, as the prestige of well-known journals make it possible to extract a high consent to pay. Open science brings significant efficiency gain to academic research, especially regarding bibliographic and data search, identification of previous findings and text and data mining projects. Theses benefits extend to non-academic research, as open access to data and publications eases the development of new commercial services and products. Although the overall economic and social impact of open science could be high, it has been hardly estimated.
The development of open science has created new forms of economic regulations of scientific publishing, as funders and institutions has come to acknowledged that this sector no longer operated in normal market conditions. International coordinations like the cOAlitionS attempt to set up global rules and norms on to manage the transition to open science.