This is a poster version of the core of my <a>Elsevier talk</a> (the poster is from DH 2103 Nebraska). A fuller narrative description (the original proposal) can be found here: http://www.uleth.ca/lib/incubator/proposal.html Abstract: The Lethbridge Journal incubator is an experiment in the sustainability of academic publishing. The incubator attempts to ensure this sustainability by aligning the publishing processes with the research, teaching, and service missions of the University. Instead of drawing resources away from these central missions, academic communication under this model become a resource that materially improves the University’s ability to carry out these core functions.

1. The Lethbridge Journal Incubator
Aligning Open Access publication with the
research and teaching missions of the public university
The Lethbridge Incubator Research Group* (Contact: daniel.odonnell@uleth.ca)
About the Incubator
The Lethbridge Journal incubator is an experiment in the sustainability of academic publishing. The incubator attempts to ensure this sustainability by aligning
the publishing processes with the research, teaching, and service missions of the University. Instead of drawing resources away from these central missions,
academic communication under this model become a resource that materially improves the University’s ability to carry out these core functions.
How it works
18 months on
The Business Model
Although on the whole the incubator
has worked more-or-less as we
imagined it would in the eighteen
months since it transitioned into its
current form, we have discovered
some problems and made some
refinements.
Graduate Students are trained in
low-specialisation, highly valuable
technical and managerial aspects of
journal
production.
They
are
assigned a single title for which they
become
the
managing
editor
(communicating with authors, editors,
referees, managing the production
process) while working with other
students in the incubator on the
technical production of all journals.
Cameron Neylon (PloS), Beyond the PDF2, March 19, 2013
Traditional Model:
OA Publication as Product
Value derived from
authorship and content
Benefit for students
Benefit for institutions
Incubator Model:
OA Publication as Process
Value derived from
authorship, content, and
production process
Benefit for journals
By far the most important discoveries
we have made are
(a) Copy-editing is too hard for
most graduate students to do well
(needs to be done by the academic
editors)
(b) An office manager is essential
(c) Students perform best when
they have common workspace and
worktimes
(d) Editors need to be involved in
student training.
Benefit for faculty
*Gillian Ayers, Sandra Cowen, Kelaine Devine, Heather Hobma, Wendy Merkley, Daniel Paul O'Donnell, Jessica Ruzek, Rhys Stevens, Marinus Swanepoel, Maxine Tedesco