The document discusses the disruption of scholarly communication due to the digital environment. It notes how aspects like publishing, libraries, and universities are challenged by digital sharing and new models like open access. The future of scholarly communication lies in adapting to this disruption by monitoring ongoing experiments, becoming better informed, and ensuring access and rights in the new digital ecosystem.

1. When are we going to get to the
science factory?
Richard Akerman
uOttawa Research Conversations
October 23, 2012

2. This Diagram Explains the Future
2

3. This List Explains the Past
• Google 1999
• Facebook 2004
• iPhone 2007
• iPad 2010
3

4. The Future is Already Here (1)
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/10/21/tina-brown-
newsweek-s-all-digital-future.html
4

5. The Future is Already Here (2)
http://bit.ly/PlNdGd 5

6. The Old World (Disrupted)
6

7. Digital + Network Disrupts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vesta_from_Dawn,_July_17.jpg 7

8. Consequences
• End of film developers (but not photography)
• End of record stores (but not music)
• End of video stores
– 4 billion hours/month of YouTube
• End of book stores
• End of newsstands
• Re-examination of any content communications system
– Enormous challenges for academic libraries
– Enormous challenges for scholarly communication
– Enormous challenges for universities
8

9. Digital + Network is Different
• Discovery
• Focus on individual content items
• Copying
• Sharing
• Remixing
9

10. There Are Many Copies
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kk/18112585/ 10

11. Network
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sjcockell/3251147920/ 11

12. Show me the money (1)
• Paid authors
• Paid editors
• Printing costs
• Traditional content model is a mix of user fees
(subscriptions, newsstand purchase) and
advertising
• Barron’s 2009 – “Until recently, many
newspapers had profit margins exceeding
30%”
12

13. The Science Factory
13

14. The Old World (Not Disrupted)
14

15. Show me the money (2)
• Authors (not paid by the publisher)
– In fact sometimes they have to pay to be
published
• Content reviewers (not paid by the publisher)
• Paid editors
• Switch to digital, much less print
• Mostly subscription revenues (licensed
content), very limited ad revenue
• Reed Elsevier 2012 Interim Results
15

16. Paying Twice?
• Institutions (usually through their libraries)
have to pay to access science that they have
funded, either through salaries or grants
• In particular the public has to pay to access
research that tax dollars have already paid for
• But there can be a lot of value-add in the
editorial process
16

17. Spring
17

18. Open Access
http://www.flickr.com/photos/communityfriend/2342578485/
18

19. Open Access (2)
• http://thecostofknowledge.com/ 12,837
• We The People petition 31,203
• US Federal Research Public Access Act
• (Harvard) Faculty Advisory Council
Memorandum on Journal Pricing
– “Consider submitting articles to open-access
journals, or to ones that have reasonable,
sustainable subscription costs; move prestige to
open access”
19

20. Open Access (3)
• “I realise this move to open access presents a challenge and
opportunity for your industry, as you have historically
received funding by charging for access to a publication.
Nevertheless that funding model is surely going to have to
change…. To try to preserve the old model is the wrong
battle to fight.”
20

21. Open Access (4)
• A lot of this is about making sure that money
turns into access for the public and the rights
expected in the digital environment, it’s not
about eliminating the money altogether
21

22. Scholarly Communication Disrupted
in Many Other Ways
• Social media (blogs, twitter)
• Repositories
• Data sharing, open data, data citation
• New models of reputation and reward
22

23. What Can You Do?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ramkarthik/4022566308/ 23

24. Inform Yourself (1)
• LSE Impact Blog
• T. Scott Plutchak
• Scholarly Kitchen
• Science in the Open
• Michael Nielsen
24

25. Inform Yourself (2)
• http://www.oa.uottawa.ca/
• Open Access Week 2012
– http://www.oa.uottawa.ca/oaweek.jsp?language=en
– http://www.openaccessweek.org/
25

26. National Research Council
• NRC Publications Archive (NPARC)
• PubMedCentral (PMC) Canada – free to
read, but not open access
26

27. Summary
• Fundamental change due to properties of the
digital environment – impacting all of our
culture
• Be a healthy part of the digital ecosystem
• Disruption of each aspect of scholarly communication
• Monitor the ongoing experiments
• Opportunities for adaptive individuals and
organisations
27

28. 29