What’s so spooky about today’s scholarly journal prices? Take our open access quiz to find out what is scaring librarians and might scare you too! In support of Open Access Week (October 24-30), librarians at the Brooklyn College Library created a Halloween-themed quiz about journal pricing.
The Open Access “Pretty Scary” Quiz is ready, don’t be scared to take it, or share it! https://openatcuny.commons.gc.cuny.edu/oa-quiz/
Is this information factual? I’d like to see the source, and if so, has college administration been contacted?
Given the nature of Open Access Week poster, we chose not to include sources in the text. Sources are cited in the quiz, however.
The sources for the poster are below:
This 2011 Guardian newspaper article is the source for the chemistry journal average price:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/29/acthe ademic-publishers-murdoch-socialist
Data from academic journals shows lower figures but is several years older. For example, a CUNY librarian gathered pre-2002 data for this article:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0098791301001708
The Elsevier price list was used to give the current price of Biochimica et Biophysica Acta.
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/506062/bibliographic
CUNY library faculty work to keep college administrators informed about the unreasonable, unsustainable situation in scholarly publishing, as well as remedies for the situation, specifically green OA and gold OA. We offer programs annually to mark Open Access Week as well as during other times of the year. Recently, faculty in other departments have begun to join the efforts of faculty in the library departments on each campus to educate about the issues in scholarly communications such as sky-rocketing journal costs and open access alternatives.
We welcome all conversation on the topic and any recommendations for advocacy and positive change.