In this project we will study
the effects of the Internet on the scientific communication process.
The focus is on new business models
enabling free electronic access to the primary scientific knowledge
for researchers, university students, companies as well as the
general public. The fundamental research question is whether
such Open Access business models (financed by "open source"-like
voluntary work, author charges, grants etc) provide a re-engineered
value chain which is radically more cost-effective and offers
wider availability of the results of science than the currently
dominating model, which is based on subscriptions or site licenses
to content given away for free by academic authors to a few large
commercial publishers.
In addition to the life-cycle economics
the inertia in moving from the currently prevailing system to
alternative Open Access outlets (electronic peer reviewed journals,
preprint and institutional repositories) will be a focus of the
study.
OACS is based at the Swedish School of Economics and Business
Administration (HANKEN) and has received funding from the Academy
of Finland.
|