Publishing is the process of producing and sharing of literature, music, or information - making information available to the general public.
Traditionally, publishing refers to the distribution of printed works such as books (the "book trade") and newspapers, done through publishing companies. These companies are selective about what gets published and have staff who oversee the production.
With the advent of digital technologies and the Internet, the scope of publishing has expanded to include electronic resources such as e-books and e-journals, as well as micropublishing: websites, blogs, video game publishers, and the like.
In some cases, authors may be their own publishers, meaning creators of content also provide media to deliver and display the content. This is self-publishing. ("Publishing," 2016, paras. 1-2).
Situated between these two is vanity publishing where authors simply pay a vanity press to publish their work. A vanity press is not selective about what gets published, and vanity press publications are therefore viewed as lower quality than traditional published works. But they do offer a means for alternative works, which may not see a lot of commercial success, to be made available.
Publishing. (2016, June 6). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publishing
Traditional publishing exists to get materials printed and distributed around the world.
"Publishing includes the following stages of development: acquisition, copy editing, production, printing (and its electronic equivalents), and marketing and distribution" ("Publishing," 2016, para. 3).
For new authors and editors, this traditional means of publishing can be a good way to tap into markets that individuals alone couldn't access. It's not all bad!
Small presses, including University presses, have smaller print runs and smaller profit margins. Therefore, arguably, their productions are of high quality, and they are invested in their authors for a longer time (as opposed to large publishers who drop under-performing titles quickly).
And furthermore, there are models of publishing that do have the intention of sharing information freely, and/or making it more widely available, particularly with today's digital technologies:
In the twenty-first century, the accessible publishing aim is to make every book available in all formats so that every reader can read with ease and proficiency" ("Accessible publishing," 2016, paras. 3-4).
Accessible Publishing. (2016, January 25). In Wikipedia. Retrieved July 2, 2016 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessible_publishing
Budapest Open Access Initiative. (n.d.). Budapest Open Access Initiative. Retrieved June 30, 2016 from http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/
Center for Open Education. (n.d.). Open textbook library. Retrieved from the University of Minnesota College of Education and Human Development website: https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/
OER Commons. (2016). What are OER Commons? Retrieved June 30, 2016 from https://www.oercommons.org/about
Publishing. (2016, July 1). In Wikipedia. Retrieved July 2, 2016 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publishing
One of the troubling aspects of publishing is that it is a commercial enterprise, and is therefore profit driven. This is nothing new and has been the case for centuries. For example, with the advance of the printing press and the growth of literacy in the 17th century, book publishing became highly profitable - so much so that authors sought literary agents to negotiate better income from their writing ("History of publishing," 2016).
But several large academic publishers have been newsworthy recently because of their high profit margins (overall profit as a percentage of revenue). These margins are largely due to the unique supply and demand nature of academic publishing. Part of the reason margins are high is the digital nature of academic materials, with the Internet creating "opportunity for significantly reduced distribution costs. Distributing ‘copies’ of digital work costs very little once initial costs have been covered" (Brook, 2014, para. 11).
These profit margins are helping the publishers thrive, particularly as the cost of digitization is decreasing. And yet the price increases the publishing companies demand drive academic libraries to cancel purchases and subscriptions - to the detriment of our students and faculty.
For example:
In 2015, the publishing company Elsevier, which publishes over 2500 journals and 30,000 e-books, reported a profit margin of approximately 37% with revenues of £2.070 billion. That is $3.91 billion Canadian in today's dollars. (RELX, 2015).
And in the same year, the University of Montreal's journal subscription costs reached $7 million, forcing the library to cancel journals which researchers relied on. One of the key issues for universities is that taxpayer dollars and student tuition pay for the university research which is published in journals, and then the universities must buy that research back in the form of journal subscriptions (CBC, 2015, para 4).
Brook, M. (2014, April 24). The cost of academic publishing. Retrieved June 30, 206 from the Open Access Working Group website: http://access.okfn.org/2014/04/24/the-cost-of-academic-publishing/
CBC News. (2015, June 15). Academic publishers reap huge profits as libraries go broke. Retrieved June 30, 2016 from http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/academic-publishers-reap-huge-profits-as-libraries-go-broke-1.3111535
History of publishing. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/publishing
RELX Group. (2015). Annual reports and financial statements 2015. Retrieved from http://www.relx.com/investorcentre/reports%202007/Documents/2015/relxgroup_ar_2015.pdf
Kelty, C.M. (2013). What's wrong with the current scholarly publishing system? [Video file]. University of California Los Angeles. Committee on Library and Scholarly Communication. Retrieved June 27, 2016 from https://vimeo.com/54401862
Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition. (2009, February 17). Author rights [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/E8ysSrcGx0A
Predatory Publishing
An increasing problem in the world of publishing is that of predatory publishers. These publishers are motivated by profit, and do not uphold rigorous standards - they merely print and sell materials. Graduate students and new professors are anxious to publish their work and can fall victim to the aggressive marketing of these publishers. Many of these publishers exist online only, and have a mail drop rather than an actual office building.
Some characteristics of predatory publishers:
Gillis, R. (2014, April 23). Publish and flourish: increasing your research visibility and avoid falling prey to predatory publishers [Presentation slides]. Presented at Mount Saint Vincent University.
University of Manitoba Libraries. (2016, June 16). What are predatory publishers? Retrieved June 30, 2016 from https://youtu.be/-xoQHTnTTrw
If an open access journal is not listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals or the Journal Guide sites, there is a greater chance that the title might be published by a predatory publisher.
What are predatory open access publishers ? Jeffrey Beall, Auraria Library, University of Colorado Denver in The Charleston Advisor v.11 no.4 April 2010 provides a succinct description and identifies some offenders:
"These publishers are predatory because their mission is not to promote, preserve, and make available scholarship; instead, their mission is to exploit the author-pays, Open-Access model for their own profit. They work by spamming e-mail lists, with calls for papers and invitations to serve on nominal editorial boards. If you subscribe to any professional e-mail lists, you likely have received some of these solicitations. Also, these publishers typically provide little or no peer-review. In fact, in most cases, their peer-review process is a facade. None of these publishers mentions digital preservation. Indeed, any of these publishers could disappear at a moment's notice, resulting in the loss of content ..."