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Commit 87a3171c authored by Jean-Sébastien Caux's avatar Jean-Sébastien Caux
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Add business model page.

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finances/templates/finances/business_model.html 0 → 100644
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{% extends 'finances/base.html' %}
{% load staticfiles %}
{% load bootstrap %}
{% block breadcrumb_items %}
{{ block.super }}
<span class="breadcrumb-item">Business Model</span>
{% endblock %}
{% block pagetitle %}: Business Model{% endblock pagetitle %}
{% block content %}
<div class="row">
<div class="col-12">
<h1 class="highlight">SciPost's Business Model</h1>
<div class="m-2">
<p>
SciPost strives to reform the business of academic publishing
by providing a top-quality infrastructure while:
<ul>
<li>being entirely not-for-profit</li>
<li>not charging any subscription fees to its readers</li>
<li>not charging any publication fees/APCs (article processing charges)
to its authors.</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
If this seems unrealistic to you, <strong>please read on!</strong>
</p>
<p>
This page will provide you with a quick run-down of how SciPost
ensures the long-term sustainability of its operations.
</p>
<p>Quick links:
<ul>
<li><a href="#bullets">Bullet Points Summary</a></li>
<li><a href="#details">The Details</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#organizations">The Organizations Pages</a></li>
<li><a href="#pubFractions">The PubFractions System</a></li>
<li><a href="#medals">Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum Sponsors</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#why">Why do we push for this Business Model?</a></li>
</ul>
</p>
</div>
<h2 class="highlight" id="bullets">Bullet Points Summary</h2>
<div class="m-2">
<div class="row">
<div class="col-lg-4">
<p>Our business model, summarized in one phrase:</p>
<p>
we don't charge authors, we don't charge readers,
we don't send bills to anybody for our services,
and we certainly don't make any profit;
we survive on donations from Organizations which benefit from
our activities.
</p>
<p>
The bullet points here give you the outline; you'll find
more detailed explanations below.
</p>
</div>
<div class="col-lg-8">
<ul>
<li>
<strong>Linking Publications and Organizations</strong><br>
As part of our production workflow,
Organizations (author affiliations, funding agencies, ...)
listed in our database are linked to each publication being readied.
This data is publicly displayed on our
<a href="{% url 'organizations:organizations' %}" target="_blank">Organizations pages</a>.
</li>
<li>
<strong>Determining PubFractions</strong><br>
After publication, authors are asked to specify PubFractions for their paper
(a publication's set of PubFractions answers the question "which Organizations shared
the support for the research leading to this publication?";
see the <a href="#pubFractions">PubFractions system description</a> below).
</li>
<li>
<strong>Determination of operational costs</strong><br>
On a yearly basis, SciPost determines and makes publicly known:
<ul>
<li>its total expenditures (on the <a href="{% url 'finances:finances' %}">finances page</a>)</li>
<li>an average cost per publication (estimate for 2019: &euro;400 per paper)</li>
<li>the free-riding fraction (proportion of our activities which are
benefitting Organizations which for one reason or another are
<em>not yet</em> sponsoring SciPost's activities)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<strong>Sponsorship</strong><br>
Organizations can inspect all the data (in particular their NAPs and summed-up
PubFractions, together with the free-riding fraction)
and hereby determine to which level
they choose to support SciPost (through a sponsorship agreement).
Sponsors can fall into <a href="#medals">Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum</a>
categories depending on their level of support.
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<h2 class="highlight" id="details">The Details</h2>
<h3 class="highlight" id="organizations">The Organizations Pages</h3>
<div class="m-2">
<div class="row">
<div class="col-lg-5">
<p>
At SciPost, we curate a database of Organizations which benefit from our
publishing activities in one form or another (think for example of
academic institutions which are mentioned in author affiliations,
and funding agencies listed in funding acknowledgements).
</p>
<p>
The data we collect is presented on our
<a href="{% url 'organizations:organizations' %}>">Organizations</a> pages,
where you will find digested information including
the NAPs (Number of Associated Publications) pertaining to any given
instance.
</p>
</div>
<div class="col-lg-7">
<img style="width: 90%;" class="m-2" src="{% static 'scipost/images/Organization_detail_FWF.png' %}">
</div>
</div>
</div>
<h3 class="highlight" id="pubFractions">The PubFractions System</h3>
<div class="m-2">
<div class="row">
<div class="col-lg-5">
<p>
Right after publication, authors receive an email notification with details
about their brand new paper. In this email, we also ask authors to
provide us with information about which Organizations actually supported the research.
This is done by splitting an imaginary unit of support among author affiliations,
funding agencies etc. (see image).
</p>
<p>
These <strong>PubFractions</strong> are then compiled and linked to the relevant
Organizations. This data is displayed on our <a href="{% url 'organizations:organizations' %}">Organizations pages</a>.
</p>
</div>
<div class="col-lg-7">
<img style="width: 90%;" class="m-2" src="{% static 'scipost/images/PubFractionsExample.png' %}">
</div>
</div>
</div>
<h3 class="highlight" id="medals">Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum Sponsors</h3>
<div class="m-2">
<ul>
<li>
<strong>Bronze</strong>: sponsorship level $\gt 0$;
</li>
<li>
<strong>Silver</strong>: sponsorship level $\geq$ (own PubFractions)
$\times$ average cost per publication;
</li>
<li>
<strong>Gold</strong>: sponsorship level $\geq$ (own PubFractions) $\times$
average cost per publication $/$ (1 - free riding fraction);
</li>
<li>
<strong>Platinum</strong>: sponsorship level $\gt 2 \times$ Gold.
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h2 class="highlight" id="why">Why do we push for this business model?</h2>
<div class="m-2">
<p>
We view our model as the <strong><em>cheapest, fairest, simplest</em></strong>
model which an academic publishing infrastructure can adopt.
</p>
<p>
A subscriptions-based model is not even worth discussing because it is
so far away from our core <a href="{% url 'scipost:about' %}#guiding_principles">guiding principles</a>.
</p>
<p>
We are <strong>resolutely against</strong> the author pays model, often
implemented as Article Processing Charges (APCs). Why?
<ul>
<li>ask any researcher what they honestly think of an "author pays" model</li>
<li>APCs entangle editorial and financial issues, thereby leading
to various degrees of <a href="https://jscaux.org/blog/post/2017/09/18/noble-metals-noble-cause/">"lead pollution"</a>
in publishers' operations</li>
<li>researchers worldwide cannot uniformly afford publication charges</li>
<li>for a multi-author paper, who should pay? Most publishers make it
administratively difficult to share costs among researchers</li>
<li>the handling of APCs for each individual publication is a substantial
time- and resources-wasting accounting exercise</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
Our greatest source of inspiration is the <a href="https://arxiv.org">arXiv</a>,
which has been providing an irreplaceable service to the community over the
last three decades. This service, which is a complete solution for preprints
in some fields of science, charges no fees to submitters or downloaders,
and is instead financed by a consortium of academic institutions.
Our model was similarly inspired by the consortial model of the Open Library of the
Humanities.
</p>
</div>
<h3 class="highlight">Closing words</h3>
<div class="m-2">
<p>
The real drivers of the publishing business are the academics who write,
review and edit manuscripts.
We view publishing merely as a service making the workflow possible,
and empowering scientists to perform these duties in the most efficient
way possible. SciPost's mission is to provide such a service, and put
its control in the hands of the academic community, without competing interests.
</p>
<p>
As far as our operations are concerned, we run them in the most efficient way possible,
with complete transparency, for the benefit not only of scientists worldwide,
but also of their supporting organizations (and anybody else interested in science).
</p>
<p>
As far as our sustainability is concerned,
we put our trust in the hands of the
<a href="{% url 'organizations:organizations' %}">Organizations which
benefit from our activities</a>.
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
{% endblock content %}
finances/urls.py
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− 1
View file @ 87a3171c
......@@ -10,7 +10,16 @@ from . import views
app_name = 'finances'
urlpatterns = [
url(r'^$', TemplateView.as_view(template_name='finances/finances.html'), name='finances'),
url(
r'^$',
TemplateView.as_view(template_name='finances/finances.html'),
name='finances'
),
url(
r'^business_model/$',
TemplateView.as_view(template_name='finances/business_model.html'),
name='business_model'
),
# Subsidies
url(r'^subsidies/$', views.SubsidyListView.as_view(), name='subsidies'),
......
scipost/static/scipost/images/Organization_detail_FWF.png 0 → 100644
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scipost/static/scipost/images/Organization_detail_FWF.png

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scipost/static/scipost/images/PubFractionsExample.png 0 → 100644
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− 0
View file @ 87a3171c
scipost/static/scipost/images/PubFractionsExample.png

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