Every Book, Every Format, All at Once: Exploring the Multiverse of eBook Open Access Models

By Laura Ricci (Senior Consultant, Clarke & Esposito) <lricci@ce-strategy.com>

Introduction

As a research and consulting firm focused on scholarly publishing, Clarke & Esposito serves a range of publishers, libraries, aggregators, university presses, and member societies with strong publishing programs. In recent years, we have helped many clients consider the implications of open access (OA) for journals and books. It is clear that models are increasingly diverging: the terms “gold OA” and “green OA” — standard terminology for journal publishers — are not sufficient to describe the “The primary innovative and experimental ways cause of the divergence that publishers are incorporating open access options into their scholarly book publishing programs. between journal This matters because without a clear and book OA understanding of how publishers can be broadly are adapting and funding these initiatives, it is difficult to articulate summed up the standards and best practices in one word: required to scale programs beyond infrastructure.” their experimental stage. Instead, we have come to view open access book publishing through a different framework — beyond the binary of open v. closed, or adherence to a certain Creative Commons license. Specifically, we look at the unique ways that book distribution infrastructure can allow combinations of closed and open formats that can together sustain a book publishing program. As with any new models, there are several challenges for providers in supporting this evolution, but — I would argue — opportunities, too.

Open Access Monograph Models

The primary cause of the divergence between journal and book OA can be broadly summed up in one word: infrastructure. Journal publishers exert a great deal of control over the hosting and distribution of their content. Publishers are themselves the primary content distributor, via a single online platform. Additional platforms, like content aggregators, play a secondary or complementary role in extending distribution, often of a subset of content, or after an embargo, to protect the primacy of the core platform.

Book publishing, by contrast, is the opposite: book publishers rarely control distribution directly and are instead reliant on a broad network of distributors and intermediaries. This network formed over time for the distribution of print sales (on which many publishers still depend), but it has since grown to accommodate digital formats. Though some publishers and aggregators offer licensed access to bundles of book titles to libraries, most book publishing is supported by nonrecurring revenue, from sales of discrete units sold one at a time. While there are plenty of books that enjoy a substantial long tail of residual sales, the most important time for a publisher to recoup investment in a title is in the first two years. Publishers have therefore developed a multichannel strategy to reach the broadest possible market and maximize income during this crucial frontlist period.

Many Ways to Be OA

Book publishers have taken advantage of the different mix of channels and product types when developing open access programs. In the “Opening the Book” preconference session at the 2021 Charleston Conference, I presented a few common examples that illustrate the complexity of these models:

• Born OA. These are books that became open access at the moment of first publication, in all electronic versions. An example scenario would be if an author pays a book processing charge (BPC) to the publisher, which enables publication of the book under a CC BY license via the publisher’s website, eBook aggregators, and consumer channels like the Amazon Kindle. Importantly, print versions of the book may still exist — these are by definition not open access and would have to be purchased.

• Selective OA. Some publishers offer open access to their scholarly books through some channels but not all. An example would be if a publisher makes a title available for free on its online platform (again, let’s say funded by a BPC), but then also offers a paid access version through consumer channels (e.g., allowing someone to buy for their Kindle). This is a way to maintain a mix of traditional and OA incomes, by pursuing different models through different channels.

• Flipped OA. These are books that were initially published as paid access titles, and at some point were “flipped” to open access. In this scenario, the book has become open access at a point when it has already completed its all-important frontlist sales period, so to be sustainable the publisher only needs to offset its “lost” long tail revenues (if any are anticipated). This comparatively low-risk approach may be one reason why early pioneers of OA books, like Knowledge Unlatched, developed their first collaborative funding initiatives to focus on the flipped OA model.

• Anticipated OA. Other collaborative funding initiatives have since emerged that focus on frontlist content. In this model, publishers pledge to publish new titles as open access once they have met a certain funding threshold. The funding threshold is typically set based on how many libraries are purchasing a certain (paywalled) collection. If the funding threshold is not met, participating libraries continue to benefit from access to that content. If the funding threshold is met, the publisher fulfills its pledge to publish some or all of its next year’s frontlist as OA. Examples of this model include MIT Press’s Direct to Open, in which libraries pay a recurring participation fee that goes toward opening all new MIT Press scholarly books and edited collections published in that year (roughly 90 in total); and the University of Michigan Press’s Fund to Mission, which aims to open 75 percent of the Press’s collection by 2023. This “anticipated OA” model might also be called “Schrödinger’s OA,” because until the funding threshold is met, publishers (and distributors) do not know whether titles will be published on a paid or open access basis.

• Single-Chapter OA. This form of open access is possible when publishers offer edited volumes or collections with multiple authors contributing a section or chapter. Some of those authors (or their funders) may pay to make their own contribution open access, meaning that chapter will be freely available to read on the publisher’s website and other platforms. The book in its entirety would otherwise be for sale, through the usual online and print library and consumer channels.

By experimenting with new OA models, book publishers are gathering evidence about how to build a sustainably resourced publishing program. Instead of relying solely and exclusively on sales revenue, new OA models incorporate additional funding sources such as author and funder payments, institutional and library subsidies, and other grant funding. Publishers can experiment with the right mix of closed and open, in different formats and throughout a book’s life cycle, to achieve the dual aims of sustainability and accessibility for their titles.

Challenges

Publishers are not the only stakeholder in this ecosystem, and the multichannel, multiplatform approach brings as many challenges as it does opportunities. In 2021, Clarke & Esposito prepared the “OA Books Supply Chain Mapping Report” for the Developing a Data Trust for Open Access Ebook Usage project funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This report documents the current state of stakeholders, metadata and usage data flows, and supply chain for OA books (Clarke and Ricci 2021). We found many instances where intermediaries struggled to support multiple access models, which — rather than empowering publishers to develop new, innovative models — can create buyer and user uncertainty.

For OA book models to work, publishers need support from the supply chain in two ways:

• The supply chain must support specific metadata elements of critical relevance to open access. These can include elements that establish the title as open access, but also those that describe the license model. For books published under a single-chapter OA model, the metadata must contain an additional level of detail about each chapter (which is a layer of granularity often not supported by metadata feeds). Crucially, often causing the most problems is what’s missing: some book distributors presuppose each book will carry a price point and will fail to load titles with a price of $0.00.

• The supply chain must support the ability for publishers to update these metadata elements over time. In circumstances like the flipped OA model, a book may become open access years after it is published, long after copies first appeared in sales channels and storefronts. If those channels can’t ingest the metadata that transforms those titles to open access, some copies may remain — inaccurately — available for sale.

Consider two scenarios illustrating what happens when intermediaries can’t support certain metadata elements or update them over time:

• A book is published open access, but its print version is available for sale. A book published under a “born OA” model is available in electronic format on the publisher’s proprietary platform under a CC BYNC-ND license, and is simultaneously available to buy in print. The publisher sends metadata about both the OA and the print versions to a library distributor that cannot load the open access version, because it does not support “free” eBooks. Librarians will instead see only the print version in their online storefront or in their approval plans. They therefore do not know that the OA version is an option, unless they follow a separate, OA-specific workflow.

• A book is published paid access but is made open access after two years. A book published as a paid access title two years ago is flipped to open access through a collective funding model. Versions of that title are available through library aggregators on a subscription basis. The publisher attempts to push a metadata update to the aggregator, but because the platform does not support a zero-dollar price point, the update fails. The aggregator continues to offer this title on a gated access basis.

The next question is usually, Why don’t these intermediaries simply update their systems to support OA? The problem is competing incentives. Many of the goals shared by publishers, authors, funders, and librarians to support an open access program involve increasing the reach and access of each title and reaching new audiences around the world. Channels that rely on sales or gated access to content earn revenue by taking a commission from sales, so with no payment required to access the title, that incentive disappears. How do these channels sustainably perform the same service if the content is open access?

The Way Forward

In our conversations with publishers and librarians, who sit at opposite ends of the supply chain, we consistently hear about pain points beyond just the purchase and sale of content. Intermediaries are sorely needed here. Many libraries rely on vendors for metadata management and cataloging services, particularly where the library wishes to curate individual titles to add “...intermediaries to their collection rather than are important to rely on large packages. Rather make OA books discoverable than spend precious staff time on creating high-quality or customized cataloging records for OA titles, in places like some libraries may be more than Google Scholar and library willing to outsource this task (as they do with paid access titles). Additionally, simply adding an open discovery access book to a platform or package services, and is not sufficient; intermediaries to enhance the value of all are important to make OA books discoverable in places like Google Scholar and library discovery content...” services, and to enhance the value of all content (both paid and OA)

across each platform. The challenge for intermediaries, which is not unique to books, is how to turn these services into a viable business model unto themselves.

One question publishers and intermediaries will be eager to answer is the extent to which the primacy of print books may help — or hinder — this transition. Previous studies have found no clear negative effect between open access availability and print book sales (Ferwerda et al. 2013, Collins and Milloy 2016). Most of these studies were conducted when open access books were comparatively nascent and before the COVID-19 pandemic, which may “The have had a dramatic impact on library and consumer purchase challenge for behaviors. In January 2022, the intermediaries, which is not Association of University Presses received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to study the unique to books, impact of open access on print sales, is how to turn which should result in an important these services update on this topic. into a viable business model In the meantime, publishers continue to develop new open access models, buoyed by increasing unto themselves.” interest and investment from funders and librarians. This will increase the market need for intermediaries that recognize what is unique about OA books and can develop a sustainable support network that takes into account the many ways a book can be OA. Publishers of OA books are actively engaged in new ways of thinking about open access, and this creates new interactions and opportunities for the rest of the supply chain. The challenge is to see OA books not as “replacing” a market made for paid access books, but rather as enhancing it.

References

Clarke, Michael and Laura Ricci. 2021. “OA Books Supply Chain Mapping Report,” Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/ zenodo.4681725.

Collins, Ellen and Caren Milloy. 2016. “OAPEN-UK matched pairs pilot: Final Report January 2016,” OAPEN-UK. https://oapen.fra1.digitaloceanspaces. com/3bcb7895c4b3477d91c538b245ba248c.pdf.

Ferwerda, Eelco, Ronald Snijder, and Janneke Adema. 2013. OAPEN-NL — A project exploring Open Access monograph publishing in the Netherlands: Final Report. The Hague: OAPEN Foundation.