[Coral-List] Open Access

[Hiroya Yamano]

Dear Coral Listers,

I appreciate Dr Richard Dunne for listing Galaxea as one of the 
publications on coral reef work. As Editor-in-Chief of Galaxea, I would 
like to let you know about the current situation surrounding Galaxea.

Galaxea is an official journal for the Japanese Coral Reef Society, but 
contributions from non-members (and of course, non-Japanese) are highly 
appreciated.
http://wwwsoc.nii.ac.jp/jcrs/english/index.html

The editors are now trying to make Galaxea to be an open-access journal 
from this year. In these years, Japanese Government encouraged Japanese 
academic societies to publish their journals electrically, and has set up a 
free on-line publication system (with links to international journals via 
CrossRef, PubMed, etc.) called J-STAGE. Though it costs to format papers 
and to make their pdfs, the system itself is free. Currently 471 journals 
are published there.
http://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/

Whether the journal would be open-accessed or not depends on the society, 
and to reiterate we are trying to make Galaxea an open-access journal. What 
we face now is how to secure profits for society members, because some of 
the publication fee for making on-line pdfs should be supported by the 
members. Still some issues to be solved, but as soon as we got agreement 
among the members, we will make it open-accessed.

Our case might be special because the government supports costs for the 
on-line system, but it could be an interesting example for how a journal 
could evolve by adopting a way to be an open-access journal.

Best regards,

Hiroya Yamano

----
Senior Researcher
Center for Global Environmental Research,
National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan
http://www-cger.nies.go.jp/climate/person/yamano/index.html
Tel: +81-29-850-2477, Fax: +81-29-850-2219
----

At 8:20 AM +0100 08.4.24, Richard Dunne wrote:
>Juan and Coral Listers
>
>I am not sure what you mean by your phrase "Springers open access policy
>is actually a Non Open Access Policy" but ignoring that and moving to
>your proposal for another publication focussing on coral reef work.
>
>There are of course already many other publications in which coral reef
>related work regularly appears. To list but a few: Atoll Research
>Bulletin, Bulletin of Marine Science, Marine and Freshwater Research,
>Limnology and Oceanography, Pacific Science, Galaxea, Marine Pollution
>Bulletin, Marine Ecology Progress Series, Marine Biology, Estuarine and
>Coastal Shelf Science, many marine geology journals, many of the new
>Open Access journals etc, etc. The list is practically limitless
>depending on the subject area. In these circumstances I doubt that any
>publisher or philanthropic organisation would consider yet another
>publication on coral reefs to be viable.
>
>Coral Reefs was born in 1982 as a brainchild of the newly formed
>International Society for Reef Studies to act as a focal point for
>publishing on all aspects of coral reef work. It would have been
>impossible for a small society like ISRS to find the huge costs involved
>in publishing, hence a publishing agreement was drawn up with Springer
>Verlag. It was originally envisaged that ISRS would benefit from some of
>the profit from this joint publishing venture, but alas there was none
>for at least the first 10 years, after which the agreement was changed
>at the instigation of ISRS. Indeed it is very likely that Springer
>carried a considerable loss for many years. Whether, and how much of a
>profit it makes now we cannot know, but it is unlikely to be very much,
>and this is one of the strengths of a large publishing house like
>Springer where profits from one area (e.g. the medical sciences) can be
>offset against losses in another. In any case, members of ISRS are
>allowed to receive both electronic access to the journal and the printed
>copy at an extremely reasonable charge. So in this sense there is open
>access to members.
>
>Springer are not quite the ogre that some would wish to believe. Almost
>uniquely they allow colour printing in this journal for no cost, and
>this is an important consideration for one of the manuscript types that
>are included; namely Reef Sites. They donated an entire print run of
>Coral Reefs and their other books to the Heron Island Research Station
>after the fire which destroyed the library. They sponsor a 1,000 euro
>prize for the best paper of the year - the latest prize being awarded to
>a young PhD researcher. They run a Developing Countries Initiative to
>provide research information for free or at very low cost to these
>countries.
>
>It is not my  function to defend any particular publisher but you must
>also consider the positive aspects. Coral reef publishing has benefited
>greatly over the last 25 years from having a journal such as Coral
>Reefs, which would not have existed without the backing of Springer.
>Whether there is now room for a "reduced marginal cost" publication to
>enter this field is doubtful, particularly since it would be likely to
>run at a loss for many years during the start up phase.
>
>
>Richard P Dunne
>
>
>Juan Federico Urich wrote:
>>  Hi there Dear listers: Out of a little boldness and some encouragment I want
>>  to say that, Springers open access policy is actually a Non Open Access
>>  Policy. Consequently, I wonder if its not time or is it not proper to have a
>>  similar joint effort, just the same as the one that has sustained well,
>>  alive, and productive the coral list (not just due to NOAA´s continued and
>>  great support), but also from all of you out there, in order to publish an
>>  open access journal on Coral Reefs with the same or higher standards as
>>  Springer´s current Coral Reef publication. I accept Springers Policy based
>>  upon what it is for them a sound business decision,  nevertheless I have an
>>  intuition that probably the time is right for at least one new player to
>>  enter the Coral Reef Knowledge market most surely at reduced marginal costs
>>  and profiting not just the journal but also the readers and above all the
>>  authors... It is simply, sound and fair Capitalism.
>>
>>  Regards to all
>>
>>  Juan
>>
>_______________________________________________
>Coral-List mailing list
>Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
>http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list

-- 
----
Hiroya Yamano
Senior Researcher
Center for Global Environmental Research,
National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan
http://www-cger.nies.go.jp/climate/person/yamano/index.html
Tel: +81-29-850-2477, Fax: +81-29-850-2219
----
--------------------------------------
GANBARE! NIPPON! Win your ticket to Olympic Games 2008.
http://pr.mail.yahoo.co.jp/ganbare-nippon/