Hi Marty:

It's a really good question. I think there are things that UC libraries can
do (or continue to do). One thing is to pursue a variety of pathways to
support OA, as we've been talking about for the last several years. So,
making sure we're not putting all our eggs into the transformative
agreement basket. We need to ensure support for a diversity of other models
that can benefit smaller publishers, societies, etc., as you say. Such as
putting capacity into collective funding efforts like the journals wishing
to flip to diamond through mechanisms like the Open Access Community
Investment Program <https://www.lyrasis.org/content/Pages/oacip.aspx>,
subscribe to open initiatives and things like Michigan's Fund to Mission
<https://www.publishing.umich.edu/features/fund-to-mission> for OA books,
eScholarship journal publishing, and other infrastructure support which can
help some of the smaller publishers get a foothold in the OA ecosystem.

Another thing I hope we can do as UC library workers is to help with
messaging/communication about options for our authors. I think a lot of the
big commercial publishers are really controlling the narrative around what
they say open access means today, and authors are basically hearing that it
means "you pay us to publish your article open access; here's your APC bill
(or here's the bill for your university)". But of course we have the UC
Open Access Policy, and should continue to hold that up as a powerful
policy mechanism to support green OA.

And then there are things that are probably outside of our wheelhouse that
the academic enterprise needs to grapple with, like promotion/tenure reform
and moving away from those publishing proxies used to indicate impact. If
all the biggest, most prestigious commercial publishers are the ones that
can move on getting transformative agreements with big universities like
ours, then it'll just perpetuate the problem because the authors (as we're
hearing) will continue to be focusing their gaze on those for publishing.
Sorry, I know I'm not saying anything new there!

I'd be interested to hear what others think too.
tim

On Thu, Jun 8, 2023 at 6:23 AM Brennan, Martin J. <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Tim,
>
>
>
> Thanks for this.
>
>
>
> That kicker has me thinking – perhaps this whole current landscape, with
> APC coverage available through major & mostly commercial journals’
> subscription packages, is leading to an author’s propensity to pick those
> journals over society journals and smaller publishers, further diminishing
> their ability to draw the good abstracts from authors.  I doubt I ‘m the
> first to formulate this problem, but I wonder if there is any effort to
> combat this, to keep it from driving publishing choices over the coming
> years?  I’d hate to think our system will accelerate this divide with our
> efforts.
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Marty
>
> \\\\\/////\\\\\/////\\\\\/////\\\\\
>
> Martin J. Brennan, MLS
>
> Scholarly Communication Education Librarian
>
> Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA
>
> Box 951575, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575
>
> Email: [log in to unmask]
>
> \\\\\/////\\\\\/////\\\\\/////\\\\\
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* Scholarly Communications CKG <[log in to unmask]> *On
> Behalf Of *Timothy Vollmer
> *Sent:* Wednesday, June 7, 2023 8:17 PM
> *To:* [log in to unmask]
> *Subject:* [SCCKG] [article] Transformative agreements and their
> practical impact: a librarian perspective
>
>
>
> https://insights.uksg.org/articles/10.1629/uksg.612
>
>
>
> FYI, it's related to our occasional discussion on impacts of
> transformative agreements on library workers on the ground. It seems
> that—unlike our situation at UC—the Swedish librarians have a fairly
> hands-on role in verifying authors and approving articles to be covered by
> their transformative agreements. There is some overlap in tasks,
> particularly around author education and helping answer questions about
> TAs.
>
>
>
> The article also discusses ongoing challenges we may see here at UC (at
> least a bit): "We suspect that researchers tend to choose a corresponding
> author who is affiliated to a university where the APC is prepaid" (I
> assume meaning an institution which provides APC coverage under a TA).
>
>
>
> And the real (disturbing?) kicker: *"We have noticed a shift in
> researchers' questions from 'which journal is the best for my article to
> get published in' to 'where could I publish my article without having to
> pay an APC'?"*
>
>
>
> Tim
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Timothy Vollmer
>
> Scholarly Communication & Copyright Librarian
>
> University of California, Berkeley
>
> Doe Library, 189 Annex
>
> Berkeley, CA 94720
>
> [log in to unmask]
>
> Pronouns: he/him
>


-- 
Timothy Vollmer
Scholarly Communication & Copyright Librarian
University of California, Berkeley
Doe Library, 189 Annex
Berkeley, CA 94720
[log in to unmask]
Pronouns: he/him