Is scholarly publishing going from crisis to crisis?

In an open access world, will journal subscription inflation simply be replaced by APC inflation? The UK’s Finch Report (2012) and subsequent changes to the Research Councils UK’s policy on open access (OA) are likely to have far-reaching effects in the UK and beyond. Finch and RCUK favour ‘gold’ OA, replacing post-publication journal subscriptions with pre-publication article processing charges (APCs). This paper argues that it is probable that the operation of the market for academic journals will be improved by gold OA compared with the traditional subscription model because of APC price competition and greater market transparency. Also, barriers to entry into the market are lowered, and costs and income in the system are more likely to stay in sync. Nevertheless, universities need to monitor developments and exercise their market power in bargaining on subscription and APC levels. Institutions also need to direct funding streams to allow authors to pay APCs. At the same time, institutions and policymakers should continue to leverage the benefits of ‘green’ OA (depositing in OA repositories). Evidence suggests gold and green OA can work together to form a successful scholarly communication environment.