1. Conservatism and Radicalism in
Scholarly Communications
Caroline Sutton
President, OASPA
Co-founder, Co-Action Publishing
The Northernmost Open Access Week Event 2010
18 October 2010, Umeå, Sweden
www.oaspa.org

2. Collins, J & Porras, I.J. (2002) Built to Last.
Collins Busines Essentials: New York.

3. Preserve the core,
stimulate progress along
non-core practices

4. Open Access publishers share
the same core values as other
scholarly publishers, but are
reshaping and driving change in
non-core practices.

5. Non-core practices tend to be
confused with core values.
Hence, changing practices can be
accompanied by controversy and
resistance due to a misunderstanding
that one is changing core values.

6. Open Access OR thinking
 Open Access OR Quality
 Open Access OR Impact
 Open Access OR Prestige
 Open Access OR Peer Review
The ”tyranny of OR”

7. What comprises the core of
scholarly communications and
what are non-core practices?

8. Quality Control
 Evidence of scientific rigor
 Valid & reliable methodology
 Theoretical grounding
 Empirically sound/appropriate evidence
 Independent contribution to the field
 Peer review prior to publication
 Single Blind
 Double blind
 Editorial control
 Editorial boards

9. Integrity
 No plagiarism
 Authentic
 Authors listed have made a contribution
 No commercial interests or (unstated) conflicts
of interests
 Editorial decisions are objective
 Copyright
 Licensing
 CrossCheck

10. Knowledge is cumulative
 Authors must cite where their ideas come from
 Reference lists
 Citations
 Impact
 Citation counting
 Impact factor
 Metrics
 Distribution
 Paper, electronic, new ”apps”
 Subscriptions, licensing
 Open Access
 Literature and data mining, New search tools such as i hop, ”nano
publications”

11. The scholarly Record is a
permanent record
 The scientific record is permanent
 An addendum than removal from the record
 Everything we publish must be around for all
posterity
 Archiving in paper
 National and international archives
 Repositories emerging
 LOCKSS, CLOCKSS, etc.
 Portico

12. (Prestige)
 Indexing & rankings
 Rejection rates
 Editorial board
 Impact factor

13. Other non-core practices
 Journals with/without issues
 Journals with/without pagination per volume
 Selling subscriptions, licensing
 APCs
 Publishing journals
 Publishing books

17. Final comments/thoughts
 We still need standards!
 Measure emerging non-core practices on the
basis of how well they support the core
values/core of scholarly communications and
scientific endeavor.
 Be aware of these core values; they are driving
your career.
 Are we confusing any non-core practices with
core values? As publishers, as researchers, as
administrators.
 Open access publishers are conservative

18. Thank you!
Caroline.Sutton@co-action.net