Economics journals change over to Open Access model
Kiel/Hamburg, 15 November 2021: “Subscribe to Open” is the name of the Open Access business model which the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics and the renowned academic publishing of Duncker & Humblot have started now. First off the starting block in 2022 are the economics journals “Credit and Capital Markets – Kredit und Kapital” and “Journal of Contextual Economics – Schmollers Jahrbuch”. In addition, the cooperation partners will digitise numerous back volumes of the journals and make them available in Open Access.
As a national information infrastructure institution for economic research, the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics cooperates actively with academic publishing houses in the joint implementation of new models for the Open Access transformation. The ZBW and the renowned German academic publishing house of Duncker & Humblot now collaborate in piloting the innovative model of “Subscribe to Open”. “Subscribe to Open” means that institutions and libraries who previously subscribed to the journals now invest in the journals’ changeover to Open Access. The current funding structures of the journals will be used. The ZBW offers a financial contribution in addition to current suscriptions to safeguard the transformation. In this model, no article processing charges (APCs) for authors accrue.
“Subscribe to Open” offers an important bridging function to a sustainable Open Access transformation specifically in economics and the social sciences.
Thorsten Meyer, ZBW library director: “As a large infrastructure institution, we see support for the Open Access transformation in economics as one of our key working areas. I am very happy that we can transfer two notable economics journals into Open Access in close cooperation with the academic publishing house Duncker & Humblot.”
From 2022, two journals will be available in Open Access. These are Credit and Capital Markets – Kredit und Kapital (CCM) and the Journal of Contextual Economics – Schmollers Jahrbuch (JCE). In addition, the cooperation partners ZBW and Duncker & Humblot will digitise back volumes of the two journals as far back as the year 1948 (JCE) and 1968 (CCM). Several thousands of articles will thus be released for free access and reuse in the new year.
Andreas Reckwerth, Publishing Director at Duncker & Humblot: “We have always seen ourselves as service providers for science and it is our aspiration to offer the best possible service to our authors and customers. We are very happy that we now have the opportunity to actively participate in the transformation process in scholarly publishing for two of our most renowned economics journals, jointly with the ZBW. The project could serve as an exemplary.”
Professors Nils Goldschmidt and Stefan Kolev, co-editors of the JCE: “We are very happy to be part of this pilot project. Our journal is rich in tradition and has seen many changes over the years, adapting itself in content and organisation to new realities. The digitisation of back volumes planned in the project will make the journal’s 150 years of history widely accessible.”
Professor Hans-Peter Burghof, co-editor of the journal CCM: “Science depends on openness for new ideas and diverse perspectives. But the scientific community also has a tendency towards restriction. You pick up on things that are currently en vogue and publish where it will best benefit your career. This is very understandable, given the high risks of a scientific career. But it also gives value to all efforts that ensure the openness and diversity of science in its appropriate contemporary form. Open Access in combination with the Subscribe to Open concept is a very promising way of connecting scholarly quality with the highest possible degree of openness for the scientific community.”
