Abstract
As main buyers of scholarly literature, research libraries have always provided essential economic support for sustaining the market of academic publishing. With the switch to open access (OA), libraries are now faced with transitioning this support from the demand (subscriptions) to the supply (publications) side. The way in which this is currently done, in general, risks strengthening the preponderance of the for-profit approach to scholarly communication. We therefore believe that it is essential to apply library budgets to foster a greater diversity. That is exactly the purpose of the Fund for Fair Open Access, set up by KU Leuven Libraries in 2018, which is exclusively devoted to stimulating the development of non-profit and community-led initiatives. This is achieved by library memberships to sustain open scholarship infrastructure, by supporting diamond OA programmes and by subsidizing OA books published by Leuven University Press. In this article, we will demonstrate the accomplished successes of the fund and share some insights we have gathered along the way, such as our decision to cease financing article processing charges, even in a Fair OA business model.
Highlights
Research libraries have a long tradition of funding the market for academic publishing
Whereas purchases by individuals might admittedly be an additional stream of income, it is fair to state that library budgets were, and still are, one of two essential elements in the traditional business model of scholarly publishing behind a paywall – the other one being the free labour performed by scholars in the production and reviewing of manuscripts
Does it really matter whether libraries pay for the acquisition of the finished product published behind a paywall or for the production costs of the same publications in open access (OA)? If a large part of libraries’ budgets is used already to finance the market for academic publishing, should they not adapt when that market changes? And if it is true that there is enough money in the system to switch to OA publishing entirely,[1] what is stopping us from investing the whole of the acquisition budget of research libraries, as is, into OA publishing?
Summary
As main buyers of scholarly literature, research libraries have always provided essential economic support for sustaining the market of academic publishing. That is exactly the purpose of the Fund for Fair Open Access, set up by KU Leuven Libraries in 2018, which is exclusively devoted to stimulating the development of nonprofit and community-led initiatives. This is achieved by library memberships to sustain open scholarship infrastructure, by supporting diamond OA programmes and by subsidizing OA books published by Leuven University Press. Keywords library funding; non-profit; community-led; OA business models; Fair OA
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