EAST: Enhancing Accessibility and Sustainability of “Teksty Drugie”

IBL PAN’s new project “EAST: Enhancing Accessibility and Sustainability of ‘Teksty Drugie'” has been funded under the OpenAire Second Call for proposals for Alternative Funding Mechanism for non-author fee based Open Access Publishing. Its main goal is to devise a sustainable open access business model for periodicals published by IBL PAN. This will be achieved through a pilot design and implementation on Teksty Drugie and a subsequent evaluation. The outcomes will later be applied to all journals published by IBL PAN.

Business model development

All IBL PAN’s periodicals are print-based and currently available in an open repository after a one-year embargo. So far, there was no need for introducing Article Processing Charges (APCs) as the periodicals use various sources of public funding. The goal now is to develop a sustainable model which would help to implement the Institute’s open access policies, while securing the funding options for journals. The project will evaluate the current business model and prepare the guidelines for dropping the embargo and implementing a full open access. At the end of the process, all journals will be available in open access from the moment they are published.

Business model pilot implementation and evaluation

New business models will be implemented on the example of Teksty Drugie. The project will develop guidelines for the editorial board and establish the journal’s presence on the OpenEdition platform, including calibrating the platform for the journal’s use, as well as publishing archival issues. This process will be evaluated with the use of elaborated statistics provided by OpenEdition.

IBL PAN will test the opportunities provided by the OpenEdition’s freemium model (html version available in open access free of charge and more advanced formats and print version requiring a fee) but will also measure the impact of Teksty Drugie’s presence on the international publishing platform on public funding opportunities. The assumption is that through increased visibility of the journal’s content, IBL PAN will not only manage to improve sales of the printed content (also disseminated through the OpenEdition platform), but will also improve the journal’s position in national rankings, which in turn will make them eligible for new public funding opportunities. Detailed usage statistics, available at OpenEdition, will help to measure the journal’s impact and would serve as a proof of actual readership for the funders.

Effect

As the main effect of the project, a case study based on the research and experience in both Polish and English will be developed. Dissemination of the case study will be promoting the open business model for journals and publishers in Poland. The case study will be submitted as a use case to the OPERAS Business Models Working Group.

IBL PAN is a core group member of OPERAS and contributes to the Advocacy, Tools (R&D) and Business Models working groups. The Publishing House of IBL PAN was established in 1990 and since then has published more than 500 titles. IBL PAN publishes three scientific journals and manages two electronic platforms for dissemination of research results and scholarly communication: New Panorama of Polish Literature and Polish Studies Newsletter.