Hybrid open access journal options

[Heather Morrison <heatherm@eln.bc.ca>]

One of the remarkable advances in open access over the summer is 
the announcement by a number of publishers (BMC, Wiley, 
Cambridge, American Physical Society, American Chemical Society, 
Blackwell). This is wonderful news!  For libraries wondering 
whether to provide support to such options, it might be a good 
idea to examine carefully exactly what it is one would be paying 
for.

Peter Suber covers the topic in some detail in the September 2006 
Open Access Newsletter article, Nine Questions for Hybrid Open 
Access Journal Programs: 
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/newsletter/09-02-06.htm#hybrid

Here are the nine questions, but please see the full article for full
explanation:

(1) Does the journal let participating authors retain copyright?
(2) Does the journal use an OA-friendly license, like those from
    Creative Commons?  Does it let authors do so?
(3) Does the journal automatically deposit participating articles in
    an OA repository independent of the publisher?  Does it allow
    the author to do so?
(4) Does the journal waive fees in cases of economic hardship?
(5) Does the journal promise to reduce the subscription price in
    proportion to author uptake?
(6) If authors have a prior obligation to their funding agency to
    provide OA to their peer-reviewed manuscript, does the
    journal let them comply without choosing the new OA option
    and paying the associated fee?
(7) If the journal previously allowed author self-archiving without
    an embargo, does it still allow it for authors who do not
    choose the new OA option?
(8) For participating authors, do the OA publication fees cover page
    and color charges or are the latter laid on top of the
    former?
(9) Is the fee high or low?

For librarians advising faculty on best options for authors 
wishing to provide open access, or who need to provide OA to 
satisfy requirements of funders, it may be useful to look at a 
combination of these variables.  For example, if one journal has 
a hybrid option with a high fee, no author copyright, and no 
immediate self-archiving option, the author might be better off 
with a journal with no hybrid option at all, but which allows 
immediate self-archiving.

When considering the use of library funds to subsidize such 
payments, I would add to 5)  (does the journal promise to reduce 
the subscription price) - the question, does the journal promise 
to reduce the subscription price for your library or consortium? 
Some of the hybrid options offer lower prices for subscribing 
libraries; others make rather vague promises about lower prices 
for everyone; and some make no mention of lowering any prices for 
anyone at all.

Heather Morrison
http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com