As Authors, Editors, and Reviewers, You Can...
Submit papers to quality journals that have reasonable pricing and publishing practices. Consult with your subject librarian who may have comparative journal pricing information. In most cases, you can retain copyright while licensing certain non-exclusive rights to the publisher.
Negotiate journal publishing contracts to retain all or some of your rights:
- Sending reprints to colleagues
- Distributing copies to classes
- Including your work in a course pack
- Author/institution self-archiving--posting your work on your home page, your institutional repository, or a subject archive
- Sample license form
- Refuse to review for or to serve on editorial boards of unreasonably expensive journals.
Let them know why.
- If you are currently an editor of an expensive title, urge the editorial board to demand that the publisher reduce the price to a more reasonable level. Failing that, try to move the journal to a non-profit publisher or an open-access/alternative publisher such as those listed in either the Directory of Open Access Journals, or in SPARC's Publisher Partners list. Yet another option is to resign, in accordance with any applicable contractual obligations, and ally with a more reasonably priced competitive publication. Let them know why.