Hi everyone,
I would like to share an overview of a new research initiative we are currently conducting at OPERAS-PL in collaboration with the SCIROS project, focusing on the financial landscape of scientific publishing.
While the transition to Open Access is well underway in Poland, the actual financial landscape remains surprisingly opaque. We all know the costs of “Gold OA” (those hefty APC invoices), but what about the “Diamond” model?
Our latest study aims to peel back the layers of:
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The Invisible Labor: Quantifying the “in-kind” contributions - editing, typesetting, and server maintenance - that keep Diamond OA running without a price tag.
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The Complexity of “Big Deals”: How national licenses with commercial giants often blur the lines between subscription fees and publishing costs.
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A New Methodology: Moving beyond public financial reports to map operational workflows and granular tasks within Polish research institutions.
We are currently in the data collection phase, with qualitative interviews scheduled for this month. Our goal is to create a robust model for calculating OA costs that can be used for better advocacy and funding for community-owned infrastructure.
Read the full blog post here for a deeper dive into our methodology and early insights: Link
I’d love to hear from anyone else working on similar cost-mapping projects or those managing Diamond OA journals. How do you track the “hidden” time and resources in your institution?
Best, Mateusz Franczak