A Rational System for Funding Scholarly Monographs: A White Paper Prepared for the AAU-ARL Task Force on Scholarly Communication

A Rational System for Funding Scholarly Monographs A white paper prepared for the AAU-ARL Task Force on Scholarly Communications Raym Crow Chain Bridge Group FLINT HILL, VIRGINIA USA • WWW.CHAINBRIDGEGROUP.COM 2 AAU-ARL Monograph White Paper v1-1 | Chain Bridge Group This report was commissioned by the Association of American Universities and the Association of Research Libraries. Association of American Universities 1200 New York Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20005 Association of Research Libraries 21 Dupont Circle, NW Washington, DC 20036 This report was prepared by— Raym Crow Chain Bridge Group Flint Hill, Virginia USA 22627 www.ChainBridgeGroup.com crow@ChainBridgeGroup.com +1.540.675.9950 Revision History— Version 1.1, updating citations, May 16, 2014 Version 1.0, revised draft incorporating reviewer comments, November 24, 2012 Version 0.9a, initial review draft, October 31, 2012 3 AAU-ARL Monograph White Paper v1-1 | Chain Bridge Group A RATIONAL SYSTEM FOR FUNDING SCHOLARLY MONOGRAPHS 1. Context & Structure 1.1. Context ...........................................................................................................................................4 1.2. Scope & Approach ........................................................................................................................5 1.3. Report Structure ............................................................................................................................5 2. The Market Failure for Scholarly Monographs 2.1. Overview ........................................................................................................................................6 2.2. Contributing Causes, Compounding Effects & Solution Design Considerations ................6 2.3. Press Sustainability Pressures .....................................................................................................9 2.4. The Undersupply of Monographs ..............................................................................................9 2.5. Pressure on Institutional Funding ............................................................................................ 11 3. Potential Solutions 3.1. Solution Design Criteria ............................................................................................................. 12 3.2. Incremental & Transformative Change.................................................................................... 13 3.3. Alternative Funding Models ..................................................................................................... 13 3.4. Summary ...................................................................................................................................... 19 4. Institutional Funding of Faculty Monographs 4.1. Faculty Book Subsidy Costs....................................................................................................... 20 4.2. Stakeholder Constraints & Collective Action .......................................................................... 22 4.3. Program Design & Planning Issues .......................................................................................... 24 4.4. Summary & Next Steps .............................................................................................................. 27 Sources Cited ............................................................................................................................................... 29 Appendices .................................................................................................................................................. 32 4 AAU-ARL Monograph White Paper v1-1 | Chain Bridge Group 1—CONTEXT & STRUCTURE 1.1 Context In early 2012, the Association of American Universities (AAU) and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) formed a joint task force on scholarly communication. The Task Force’s charter indicates that AAU and ARL seek to harness the potential of digital publishing technologies and ubiquitous networking to increase access to scholarly research and reduce production and distribution costs. At the same, the Task Force seeks to ensure the long-term economic viability of the scholarly publishing system and continuity with critical elements of the current publishing model, while pursuing collaborative solutions that bring together key stakeholders. To advance this charter, the Task Force commissioned two white papers—the present report, focusing on scholarly monographs, and another that will address scientific and scholarly journals—to frame critical problems and identify projects through which AAU-ARL members might constructively intercede. To that end, this report focuses on potential responses to the market failure for scholarly monographs; that is, the inability of a market model to adequately support research publication based solely on scholarly merit. Scholarly monographs serve two principa