Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics (SCOAP³)
SCOAP³ is a project of leading players in the field of particle physics research (research institutes, large laboratories, author groups, associations and libraries). It was initiated by Dr. Robert Aymar, Director General of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).
With this pilot project and in collaboration with the relevant publishers, the participating institutions aim to transform the most important specialist journals in the field of particle physics into Open Access journals, which means that all publications in this research field will become freely accessible.
There are two reasons why it makes sense to concentrate this pilot project on the particle physics field of research. On the one hand, the vast majority of articles in this field are only published in six refereed journals. On the other hand, the open access paradigm is deeply rooted in this field of research. Approx. 90% of scientific articles in this field are already published in the form of preprints and are accessible to all.
The participating institutes are initially planning to form a consortium so that, in a second stage, they will be able to offer publishing companies the option of author-financing of publication costs.
In accordance with its commitment to the proactive promotion of Open Access, the Max Planck Society is a dedicated member of the interim consortium, which is currently preparing the foundation of the actual consortium.
This initiative is to demonstrate how representatives of both science and publishing companies can cooperate on developing new business models in order to realize the Open Access paradigm. A core element of this initiative is the adherence to established and high-profile publishing bodies with their recognized review methods and quality standards.
The change in the publishing companies’ business model currently under consideration offers two advantages:
- Free access to the reviewed and published final version of the articles
So far, approx. 90% of the articles published on particle physics are freely accessible in the form of preprints in electronic archives (Open Access Repositories) at the research institutions. However, these preprints are generally versions of articles that have been submitted to journals. The final versions of the articles that have been revised and published after the peer review are not generally freely available.
- Long-term cost control for peer review and publication
As the players concentrate on SCOAP³ and on the few participating publishing companies, it is possible to negotiate, on an equal footing, a business model that will be viable in the long term.
Within the consortium, the costs are initially to be distributed across the individual participating countries, depending on “publication intensity”. To this end, their representatives sign so-called expressions of interest, which provide financial security for the consortium. Representatives for Germany have already signed such an expression. These are currently being collected from other countries so that the consortium will then be able to negotiate with the relevant publishing companies.
