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Open Access Panacea: Scarcity, abundance, and enclosure in the new economy of academic knowledge production
Christopher Muellerleile 
Routledge Handbook of Political Economy of Science
Swansea University Author:
Christopher Muellerleile
Abstract
This chapter argues that despite the spin it normally receives, open access journal publishing is only one component of a larger dialectic of new openings and closures in academic journal publishing. Most importantly the paper argues that the context of open publishing is quickly being economized by...
| Published in: | Routledge Handbook of Political Economy of Science |
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| Published: |
2017
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa28111 |
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| Abstract: |
This chapter argues that despite the spin it normally receives, open access journal publishing is only one component of a larger dialectic of new openings and closures in academic journal publishing. Most importantly the paper argues that the context of open publishing is quickly being economized by for-profit publishers. Contrary to the beliefs of many academic researchers and curators of journals, the emergent open access economy is based not on the content of research articles, but on meta-data, bibliometrics, and other quantitative data. This informational economy is filtered and framed by for-profit firms, and constituted by new spaces of standardization, metrics, comparison, and competition. This chapter offers a brief overview of the current journal publishing landscape, focusing on the transition to open access in the UK and U.S. It then explores the emerging strategies of academic researchers, universities, and publishers in light of the growing (over)abundance of academic knowledge, much of which is fueled by open access. |
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| College: |
Faculty of Science and Engineering |