During the past decade, the massive worldwide conversion of learning content from print and other older media on to digital networks has created gatekeepers who limit access to their digital content or require online users to pay for it.

A variety of gatekeepers have made a third choice:
to open their content freely into the Internet.
These are their stories.

May 31, 2006

Human Sciences Research Council Press
South African publisher

An urgent phone call came last year into the offices of the Human Sciences Research Council (“HSRC”) Press from the School of African and Oriental Studies in the UK. Someone at the school had seen the digital version online of the HSRC’s publication called The Theatre of Violence. “Where can the school buy printed copies?” the caller inquired. The school was referred by HSRC to the publication’s UK print publisher and local bookshops.

The sparking of this print sale by placing a publication’s content freely online was not unusual for HSRC, which is a large South African social science research body. Eve Gray & Associates, a strategic consultancy across the publishing value chain, has evaluated and reported in-depth on HRSC since it adopted the online open access model for its printed publications. Eve Gray points out: “An interesting sidelight on the dual publishing model is that in 2004, after open access publishing had been embraced and many products were available free of charge online, the sales turnover of the publishing department has risen by 300%.” The consultancy report adds that while the sales income is impressive, the advertising impact of the open content may be of even greater value.

In a world where online publications are becoming steadily more important, HSRC is an interesting model for moving into the future of publishing. On its website, HSRC describes some of its "distinguishing features":

    * Free access to information via our open access electronic publishing model;
    * Our print publications do not go ‘out of print’ when market demand drops; instead our electronic publishing model enables us to archive material and supply copies in small quantities;
    * Our print-based publications are significantly more affordable as the sale prices for print based publications do not include profit margins;
    * Unusual attention is paid to each publication we produce as we are not constrained by the commercial demand of publishing a large numbers of titles annually;
    * The formal peer-review process guarantees the highest academic quality.

For an in-depth look at this publishing model, Eve Gray & Associates offers its study of HSRC as a PDF open content download on its website. The title of the study is: DIGITAL PUBLISHING AND OPEN ACCESS FOR SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH DISSEMINATION.