Collins Unbound

Over the last few decades, the subscription cost of scholarly serial publications has grown at a rate far outpacing the rate of inflation. Caused largely by the concentration of academic journal publishing residing with a handful of commercial publishers, these price increases and the resulting strain it has caused for subscribing libraries, has become known as the serials crisis. This crisis has resulted in reduced access to scholarly journals for many institutions, and caused a budget shift away from monographs, and other resources, as libraries struggle to maintain access to desired journals.

The commercial publishers’ preferred business model of bundling a large number of journal titles together for a discounted aggregated package further complicates budget decisions for libraries, resulting in subscriptions to unwanted journals in order to access essential ones.

These practices, combined with budget restrictions, often result in impediments to free and open scholarly communication. OA journals, which provide free and unfettered access to their content, act as an alternative model that can alleviate some impediments to scholarly communication.

OA journals use Creative Commons and other open licensing to permit open sharing of scholarly work without making the work public domain.  You can read more about Creative Commons Licensing on the library’s Scholarly Communications LibGuide.

Muddying the waters of OA and subscriptions to scholarly journals are a wide spectrum of hybrid options. Some journals allow authors to archive pre- or post-publication versions of articles on institutional or subject repositories after an embargo period. This model is sometimes referred to as green OA, in contrast to fully open OA journals that are referred to as gold OA. Furthermore, other journals use a pay for OA model where a publisher requires payment from the author for an article to be made freely available on the journal’s website. This can help increase access for readers, but often at a steep price for the author or their institution.

Collins Library provides access to many hundreds of OA Journals that are searchable in Primo, our online discovery tool.

Further Reading

Scholarly Communications LibGuide

SPARC

Creative Commons

Directory of Open Access Journals

–By Ben Tucker

Similar to OA journal publishers, OA book publishers provide readers free access to scholarly monographs. Collins Library is a founding member of one such publisher, Lever Press. Supported by a consortium of liberal arts institutions focused on, and renowned for, excellence in both research and teaching, Lever is grounded in three essential commitments:

• To be a digitally native press;
• To be a peer-reviewed, open access press that charges no fees to either authors or their institutions; and
• To be a press aligned with the ethos and mission of liberal arts colleges.

Lever Press’s model is based on member liberal arts college libraries paying annual dues to the press which cover its operating costs. Lever’s books are then made available at no cost to all readers in a digital format using a Creative Commons License of the author’s choosing.

Lever’s stated values are in alignment with the academic pursuits favored at Puget Sound. Lever Press’s value statement reads:

“As a press aligned with the ethos and mission of liberal arts colleges, we seek out, identify, evaluate, and advocate for transformative scholarship that spurs creative dialogue within and between traditional fields of inquiry, emphasizes disciplinary innovation, draws upon new models of collaborative research, and strives to reach the broadest audience possible. We value:

– leadership and the courage to push existing boundaries
– diverse voices and viewpoints
– the principles of equity and social justice
– building community among our members and beyond
– continuous learning

By living our values we will be responsive to the needs of readers, authors, and member institutions, share our liberal arts focus broadly, and engage globally with others in the exchange of new scholarship.”

In addition to support from Collins Memorial Library, Brett Rogers, Associate Professor and Chair, Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies, serves on Lever Press’s editorial board. The editorial board reviews proposals at various stages of the publication process, and votes on books to move ahead in the production pipeline. The editorial board also discusses programming that increases awareness of the press and its publications, and issues of institutional membership.

Further Reading

Lever Press

Directory of Open Access Books

Open Book Publishers

Open Humanities Press

– By Ben Tucker

Sound Ideas represents the scholarship and creative works of the faculty, staff and students of the University of Puget Sound. Organized and made accessible by Collins Memorial Library, Sound Ideas demonstrates our institutional commitment to helping enrich the global academic community through sharing and collaboration.

Sound Ideas provides faculty members a venue for posting iterations of their published work, in compliance with their publishers’ license, resulting in increased user access, as well as providing a means of complying with the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act. Faculty members who are unsure about what a publisher’s license permits in relation to posting work on personal websites or institutional repositories can contact their liaison librarian for a consultation.

Faculty members can self-submit their work to Sound Ideas if they’ve retained the required rights. First time users will need to create an account, while returning users can simply login, fill out a form with descriptive information, and upload their work.

Notable scholarly collections:

• Faculty Scholarship in Sound Ideas 
  This collection acts as a partial index of faculty members’ published works. Where possible, we have provided links to summary or full text versions of these works.

• Conferences & Events in Sound Ideas 
  The University of Puget Sound is host to many conferences and special events throughout the year. These collections include program information, proceedings and videos from the events.

• Race & Pedagogy Journal
  This peer-reviewed OA journal provides a forum for cultivating  critical discussions around the issues of teaching and race in an effort to mitigate the effects of discrimination and structural racism, and thereby, improve education for all students. R&PJ is managed and edited by the University of Puget Sound under the auspices of the Race and Pedagogy Institute.

Some journal publishers allow authors to pay for individual articles to be fully Open Access. Fees vary, but can be significant at times. The University Enrichment Committee facilitates funding opportunities for faculty members seeking Open Access or other publication fees. Details can be found on the Faculty Research Guidelines Document.  

Further Reading

Sound Ideas

Sound Ideas Libguide

-By Ben Tucker