[LINK] Academic publishing viable in Australia?
Tom Worthington
Tom.Worthington at tomw.net.au
Mon Dec 11 08:40:04 AEDT 2006
From "The end of the paper trail", Rosemary Neill, The Australian,
December 09, 2006:
<http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20875879-5001986,00.html>:
---
"CAROLYN Leach-Paholski was tickled pink when her first novel was
accepted by academic publishing house Pandanus Books. ... Just days
after The Grasshopper Shoe's launch last year, Leach-Paholski learned
Pandanus was to be closed down. ...
The publisher, set up in 2001 under the auspices of the Australian
National University, was in debt to the tune of $170,000 and the
university was no longer prepared to subsidise it. Instead, Pandanus
would be absorbed into the university's electronic press, ANU E Press ...
Australia's most prominent university presses, the University of
Queensland Press and Melbourne University Press, have undergone
radical restructures in recent times, including drastic staff cuts.
In 2003, MUP shed most of its staff as part of a commercial overhaul;
UQP has survived an exodus of senior staff and a $3.5 million debt
burden. The ANU's vice-chancellor Ian Chubb said earlier this year
the university could no longer afford to subsidise the loss-making
Pandanus as it fell outside the core activities of teaching and
research. (Chubb did not respond to Review's requests for an interview.)..."
---
Also Vic Elliott, Director, Scholarly Information Services and
University Librarian at The Australian National University talked on
Electronic publishing at Australian universities at the NLA November
27, 2006
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2006/11/is-e-publishing-in-australian.html>.
I agree with the VC, but even low cost e-publishing university
operations will need some work on their business models to be
commercially viable
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2006/11/is-e-publishing-in-australian.html>.
Universities need to be clear about why they are doing e-publishing:
is it as a commercial operation, or a subsidized one to aid scholarly
communication. There is a danger that by trying to do both, they will
achieve neither.
With the ACS Digital Library we are seeing if advertising will cover
the costs. It will take about a year to find the answer
<http://dl.acs.org.au/>. But the reason the ACS is publishing
journals and conference proceedings is to provide information about
research and practice in IT, not to make money. If we cover the
costs, that would be good.
Tom Worthington FACS HLM tom.worthington at tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd ABN: 17 088 714 309
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617 http://www.tomw.net.au/
Visiting Fellow, ANU Blog: http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/atom.xml
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