{"id":702,"date":"2013-04-23T10:57:48","date_gmt":"2013-04-23T17:57:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/?p=702"},"modified":"2013-04-23T10:57:48","modified_gmt":"2013-04-23T17:57:48","slug":"arts-policy-research-is-expensive-a-contrasting-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2013\/04\/arts-policy-research-is-expensive-a-contrasting-view\/","title":{"rendered":"Arts policy research is expensive: a contrasting view"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"this<\/a>In an earlier post <\/a>I noted the high expense of “gated” academic journals, and questioned why the global network of research universities has continued to use a system where academics produce research articles (sometimes at high cost), serve as peer-reviewers, and as editors, without renumeration, and then pay publishers significant fees to access the published versions of those works. Why not use low-cost (but still peer-reviewed) open-access platforms?<\/p>\n

A new working paper by Adam Mossoff of George Mason University Law School provides a contrasting view. The abstract (and you can download this paper for free here<\/a>):<\/p>\n

Today, copyright policy is framed solely in terms of a trade off between the benefits of incentivizing authors to create new works and the losses from restricting access to those works. This is a mistake that has distorted the policy and legal debates concerning the fundamental role of copyright within scholarly publishing, as the incentive-to-create conventional wisdom asserts that copyright is unnecessary for researchers who are motivated for non-pecuniary reasons. As a result, commentators and legal decision-makers dismiss the substantial investments and productive labors of scholarly publishers as irrelevant to copyright policy. Furthermore, widespread misinformation about the allegedly \u201czero cost\u201d of digital publication exacerbates this policy distortion.<\/p>\n

This paper fills a gap in the literature by providing the more complete policy, legal and economic context for evaluating scholarly publishing. It details for the first time the $100s of millions in ex ante investments in infrastructure, skilled labor, and other resources required to create, publish, distribute and maintain scholarly articles on the Internet and in other digital platforms. Based on interviews with representatives from scholarly publishers, it reveals publishers\u2019 extensive and innovative development of digital distribution mechanisms since the advent of the World Wide Web in 1993. Even more important, this paper explains how these investments in private-ordering mechanisms reflect fundamental copyright policy, as copyright secures to both authors and publishers the fruits of their productive labors. In sum, copyright spurs both authors to invest in new works and publishers to invest in innovative, private-ordering mechanisms to distribute these works. Both of these fundamental copyright policies are as important today in our fast-changing digital world as they were in yesteryear\u2019s world in which publishers distributed scholarly articles in dead-tree format.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don’t doubt that publishers like Reed Elsevier and Sage made substantial investments in developing online platforms for their journals. That’s not surprising – if I owned the rights to decades of scholarly articles in prestigious publications, some of which having a very valuable “brand” in the discipline, I would want to make sure I made investments in ensuring I did not lose my market position as the technology of dissemination was changing. But even in “our fast-changing digital world,” is it the case that we need commercial firms to be at the lead in investments in new technologies in academic publishing? Put another way, I have access to publications produced by nonprofit professional organizations that are of the highest quality and that have convenient online platforms. Can this not be the norm? I’m glad of Professor Mossoff’s paper, I learned from it, but I’m not sure I’m convinced …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an earlier post I noted the high expense of “gated” academic journals, and questioned why the global network of research universities has continued to use a system where academics produce research articles (sometimes at high cost), serve as peer-reviewers, and as editors, without renumeration, and then pay publishers significant fees to access the published […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-702","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-issues","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3dIW5-bk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":636,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2013\/04\/arts-policy-research-is-expensive\/","url_meta":{"origin":702,"position":0},"title":"Arts policy research is expensive","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"April 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"In an earlier post I talked about how firms with a large set of distinct items to sell - a cable television provider with many channels; a museum with many rooms - would find it most efficient to offer only a package deal to customers, with no a la carte\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"expensive reading","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/journals-219x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1957,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2016\/01\/arts-funding-and-peer-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":702,"position":1},"title":"Arts funding and peer review","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"January 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"At The Scotsman, Euan McColm writes about the controversy surrounding Creative Scotland's grant to artist Ellie Harrison, who will live in Glasgow for a year without leaving, in order to personally document what is known in social science as the 'Glasgow effect', whereby various measures of quality of life are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"this is starting to have an effect on me","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Merchant_City_Glasgow_016.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Merchant_City_Glasgow_016.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Merchant_City_Glasgow_016.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Merchant_City_Glasgow_016.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Merchant_City_Glasgow_016.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Merchant_City_Glasgow_016.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2311,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2018\/03\/decorative-but-not-useful-the-instrumental-benefits-of-the-arts\/","url_meta":{"origin":702,"position":2},"title":"Decorative but not useful: the instrumental benefits of the arts","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"March 11, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"What good are the arts beyond the personal aesthetic pleasure we gain from them? There is quite a list out there, of these so-called instrumental benefits of the arts: they make us more empathetic people, or so a grant to the Minneapolis Institute of Art hopes (in a recent review\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"you'll be sorry if you do","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/do-not-touch.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/do-not-touch.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/do-not-touch.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2379,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2018\/11\/identification-please\/","url_meta":{"origin":702,"position":3},"title":"Identification, please","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"November 16, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"What are the keys to success in the art world? Some combination of hard work, smart early career choices, artistic talent, access to the connected and the gate-keepers, and a bit of serendipity. The same could be said of many professions. 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I do not like it. Preliminary:\u00a0Levitin\u00a0is James McGill Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Neuroscience at McGill University, and the author of many books - I came to know him long ago for his\u00a0This is Your Brain\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1289,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/05\/does-theatre-make-you-happy\/","url_meta":{"origin":702,"position":5},"title":"Does theatre make you happy?","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"May 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The Stage reports: \"Study finds attending plays feels as good as a pay rise\". The study was carried out at the LSE, funded by the UK Department for Culture Media & Sport. The research paper itself is an excellent piece, well-placed in the current scholarly literature on determinants of (self-reported)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"I feel like a million dollars!","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/laugh460.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}