PRESS RELEASE

Linguistics offers free access to academic publications and manages its own journals

A group of leading international linguists are aiming to make accessibility to academic research results less dependent on expensive commercial publishers. The editorial boards of various academic journals in linguistics are in the process of leaving their publishers or are renegotiating their collaboration. They will soon be publishing their articles on a universal free access basis at extremely low costs. Supported by universities, this unique initiative will be launched under the name of LingOA and is a significant step on the road towards open access.

LingOA is pioneered by the editorial boards of five prominent journals in the field of linguistics. They expect that their initiative will also encourage other journals to move towards affordable Open Access. All the preparations to ensure the success of this step have been made. This Dutch initiative will promote the publication of articles in accordance with ‘fair’ Open Access. This means that the authors retain copyright to their articles, editorial boards will own the titles of their journals, and the publication platform charges considerably less for its services than commercial for-profit publishers currently do. In addition, the publication costs are transparent and linked to the actual services rendered.

Academic articles will be published by Ubiquity Press with the Open Library of Humanities as a long-term sustainability partner. OLH, whose 
platform is also provided by Ubiquity Press, will guarantee the continued publication of the journals associated with LingOA after the first five years through its consortial library funding model. This ensures long-term sustainability. The first journals to be published by Ubiquity Press, from January 2016, as part of this initiative are LabPhon and the Journal of Portuguese Linguistics. The journals Lingua and Journal of Greek linguistics are currently renegotiating their collaboration with their publishers.Several other reputable journals are expected to announce the transition to the new platform shortly. The Dutch universities, the university libraries, the Association of Dutch Universities (VSNU), The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) have expressed their support for this momentous step.
 

Financial guarantee
A successful transition requires a financial guarantee to safeguard publication of Open Access articles. The six Dutch universities (University of Amsterdam, Leiden University, Radboud University Nijmegen, University of Groningen, Utrecht University and Free University Amsterdam) where linguistic research is conducted have consented to provide such a guarantee in the context of the  Association of Dutch Universities (VSNU). The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) will provide an additional subsidy.

Open Access improves access to research
The Dutch universities support the LingOA initiative as they are strongly in favour of affordable open access to academic publications – an aim shared by the Dutch government. Open Access publications are easier to find, more frequently cited and reach a larger audience. This benefits not just science, but society and the economy at large.

According to targets set by State Secretary Dekker for Education, Culture and Science, five and ten years from now 60% and 100% of all Dutch academic publications, respectively, should be open access publications. Signifying a major step towards a new model for open access, this initiative reflects the notion that academic publications financed from public resources should be universally accessible without any financial hurdles.

Note for editors:

See our Q&A for more information about LingOA.

LingOA: Johan Rooryck, spokesperson LingOA: 00 32 491 94 10 10

VSNU: Bastiaan Verweij, spokesperson VSNU: +31 (0)6 - 43 26 97 55