[GOAL] Re: Springer for sale - implications for open access?

[Heather Morrison]

On 2012-10-10, at 10:05 AM, David Prosser wrote:

Unless you believe that private companies should not be allowed to run scholarly publishing services (a position I don't hold) then I don't see any implications.  I guess any new owner may feel that the OA business is not profitable enough, in which case they will either a) put prices up and risk pricing themselves out of the market, b) lower costs and risk losing out to competitors who provide better services or c) exit the OA journal publishing busy entirely.  In any case, all the papers that Springer has already published OA will remain OA.

Re:	"all the papers that Springer has already published OA will remain OA". 

Question: please explain on what basis you make this assertion. Any papers that Springer has published under CC-BY licenses place no obligation whatsoever on the Licensor (Springer) or a successor.

Comment on the ideological question: my perspective is that scholarly publishing services should be designed and led by scholars, for scholars and for the public interest. Private companies can and do play a useful role in providing such services. However, when large portions of the scholarly literature are owned and/or controlled by private interests, this is problematic.

best,

Heather Morrison, MLIS
Doctoral Candidate, Simon Fraser University School of Communication
http://pages.cmns.sfu.ca/heather-morrison/
The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics
http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com