Giving It Away: Sharing and the Future of Scholarly Communication

Abstract

Debates about open-access scholarly publishing often focus on the costs of scholarship, whether costs incurred by publishers in producing books and journals or costs faced by libraries in acquiring those publications. Taking those costs as the centre of such discussions often results in an impasse, as the financial realities of publishing—particularly within disciplines that are less well-funded than STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics)—seem to present an insurmountable obstacle to greater openness. What if, however, we were to refocus the discussion on values rather than costs? How might such a shift in focus lead us to think differently about the motives and benefits involved in scholarly communication, and how might this lead us to recognize the generosity that keeps the engine running?