Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The third issue is a consequence of the first two. The version that
publishers allow to be self-archived varies, and can be the Version of
Record (though this is rare) or an earlier version of the article
(Morris, 2009). Because the authority and certification of material
appearing in online repositories is dependent on publisher brands,
repositories therefore can and do contain a multiplicity of versions.
Different versions of an article may appear in different repositories,
with little or no version control and nothing to identify to the reader
the way in which one version differs from another, with the obvious
problems that this presents. As a result, some repositories insist that
it is the Version of Record that is deposited, though this is the
version that the journal is least likely to allow to be self-archived.
Hybrid model
The hybrid model allows journals funded by the tried and tested
subscription model to experiment with OA in a low-risk way and to test
their authors' appetite for author-side funded OA. It also allows
subscription journals to comply with funder mandates requiring the final
publisher version of articles to be made freely available on publication.
The number of publishers offering a hybrid model more than tripled
between 2005 and 2008 to 30% (Cox and Cox, 2008), but in some
respects it is surprising that more publishers do not offer this option. This
may be explained by the fact that OA has been less widely discussed in
the arts and humanities than it has in science publishing, and that in any
case take-up from authors has generally been low. The same survey
reports that 53% of publishers offering a hybrid model have seen a take-
up rate of 1% or less, 74% a take-up rate of 5% or less, rising to 91% of
publishers seeing a take-up rate by authors of 10% or less.
Advertising
Advertising appears to be the business model of choice for the web.
After all, it is how Google manages to generate revenues of $10 billion
a year with a workforce of only 22,000 - not bad. And if it is good
enough for Google, it should be good enough for the rest of us - right?
I have lost count of the number of web businesses that had advertising
as their core (and often only) revenue stream. Countless more have
