Focus

[Edward Miller]

What kind of Journal do we want to be? Obviously we can look to H+
Magazine for inspiration, as well as JET. I think we should aim for
something in the middle of those. Perhaps more technical than H+
Magazine, but with similar graphical flare and some mainstream
content.

How closely tied in will we be to the Network for Open Scientific
Innovation. Should the websites have a consistent look and feel, and a
single login system?

Which CMS will we be using for the journal, or will it not be
assembled with the aid of a CMS?

Abundance is a much better choice for a name, and I commend Joseph on
that decision. We need to think heavily about the memetic impact of
everything in the journal. Perhaps each issue could have a theme that
is chosen to be relevant to current events.

For instance, with the economic crisis, there has been a distinct rise
in the popularity of Open Source, and perhaps we should have an issue
dedicated to the beneficial impact of post-scarcity models during hard
times. This would seem to be something that must be addressed
immediately, considering we are releasing a journal called "Abundance"
during such a fiscal climate.

[Bryan Bishop]

On Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 2:27 AM, Edward Miller <Embrac...@gmail.com> wrote:
> What kind of Journal do we want to be? Obviously we can look to H+
> Magazine for inspiration, as well as JET. I think we should aim for
> something in the middle of those. Perhaps more technical than H+
> Magazine, but with similar graphical flare and some mainstream
> content.

I suggest "Whole Earth Catalog" and "edge.org" as role models, not "H+
Magazine", not JET. Maybe the old Extropy magazines, but I've never
read them.

> Which CMS will we be using for the journal, or will it not be
> assembled with the aid of a CMS?

I've been known to recommend drupal, mediawiki, django, and a few
other packages. For instance:

http://drupal.org/node/46485

- Bryan
http://heybryan.org/
1 512 203 0507

[Joseph Jackson]

Just a note from Pat Kane--probably we should reserve AbundanceStudies.something.  I will keep abundanceorannihilation.org for my own archiving purposes but Pat thinks the former domain name is more authoritative and inclusive. 

Ed, I'm thinking we're just going to keep things separate from the Network for now, unless it eventually  serves as a "sponsor" or recruits donations to support the site's operations if we get to the stage where things are expensive. 

Also the journal of virtual world's research as one possible model:  http://jvwresearch.org/     

[Joseph Jackson]

I'm going to talk to the journal of virtual world's research about
their operating budget--Bryan I see it is based out of U Texas
Austin. I've been talking a bit to some of those who have replied
about what kind of resources may be needed if we really want to do
this as a journal vs a magazine format. It depends on how many people
are willing to serve in the relatively intense capacity of editor.
I'm still perplexed that peer review costs as much as it does in the
digital age (and I also prefer a publish then filter approach).

[Bryan Bishop]

On Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 9:55 PM, Joseph Jackson wrote:
> I'm going to talk to the journal of virtual world's research about
> their operating budget--Bryan I see it is based out of U Texas
> Austin. I've been talking a bit to some of those who have replied

Yeah, I can physically show up and meet with someone if you'd like me
to, just point me in the right direction and such. Anyway, did you see
the list from the diybio list earlier today re: publication costs,
even for PLoS? Sounds unnecessary- at the price of $1.2k/paper (about
~1 MB on average, since it's plain text plus images), Google would be
so astronomically expensive at its current state that it'd be
ridiculous. Anyway, data is cheap. Reviewers might be another story, I
don't know.

[DoctorData]

I myself have thought about creating an Institute for Abundance
Studies, Institute for Economic Abundance, or Institute for Economic
Abundance Studies - some good .org available there - but have been too
busy to do so. Would love \to participate insofar as I'm able to,
though.

Steve Burgess

On Feb 2, 7:37 am, Joseph Jackson <joseph.jack...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Just a note from Pat Kane--probably we should reserve
> AbundanceStudies.something. I will keep abundanceorannihilation.org for my
> own archiving purposes but Pat thinks the former domain name is more
> authoritative and inclusive.
>
> Ed, I'm thinking we're just going to keep things separate from the Network
> for now, unless it eventually serves as a "sponsor" or recruits donations
> to support the site's operations if we get to the stage where things are
> expensive.
>
> Also the journal of virtual world's research as one possible model:http://jvwresearch.org/
>

> On Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 9:05 AM, Bryan Bishop <kanz...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 2:27 AM, Edward Miller <EmbraceUn...@gmail.com>

[Joseph Jackson]

Today I had an instructive conversation with Jeremiah who founded the
journal of virtual world's research. I think this is an achievable
model for what we'd like to do. He is at U Texas Austin but has self-
funded the journal with minimal involvement from UT. Offhand I think
$10K is sufficient to start this up and run the first year. As you
see from the transcript we explored forming/joining a consortium to
publish open access social science journals--a new brand analogous to
PLOS in this other sphere. Not everything Jeremiah is doing has to be
replicated for our effort but it is a nice blueprint.

1. the most important thing about a journal is prestige (as you
already know) this means that the bulk of your up front expenses needs
to be in developing a hard-hitting online presence.

All of the editors are volunteers, although few do anything of note
they are building up the prestige, which is essential to back up the
website
then we have two other elements: each issue is themed (as you may
have noticed) and a pair or trio of scholars propose the theme, draft
the CFP, review the submissions, arrange peer review, prepare for copy
editing. These editors work for the prestige of having their name as
guest editor. Then the $$

1. web design, upkeep, upgrades, etc
$1-3k upfront, $100-200 per issue for making everything look nice
although the back-end - using open journal systems (OJS) is being
provided and supported by the Texas Digital Library Consortium at no
cost. If one or more of your editors is affiliated with UT-Austin,
that could be arranged. The value of OJS is $5k + per year
2. editorial coordinator - $300-400 per issue this person keeps you
(the editor) from going insane by coordinating all the tedium between
guest editors, copy editors, layout design, web designer, etc.

3. copy editors - $300-600 per issue: this is essential.. part of
your prestige is built upon the quality of the articles and despite
many scholars having Ph.D.s and important universities after their
names, they are not necessarily good writers

4. legal, trademark, crossref fees, copyright fees, etc these vary.
I have been digging on this for a while. Part of branding is
protecting your brand. Trademarking is cheap - $400-ish. Crossref
puts you in the DOI database and I've not yet figured out the exact
cost but we are a member and trying to learn how to use it, but at
least - $400 per year

Copyright, i'm still working on... from what I understand even though
you use the CC license, the journal should still file a copy with the
library of congress, which can be done online and is $15 per article
(or something similar)

5. publicity
This is a challenge.. we are working on the idea of using the
services of PR Newswire, with a 501(c)3 the costs are $600-900 per
press release... but this gets 400 words to 5000-15000 new outlets
again trying to surpass the prestige barrier

So, how do we pay for it? First, we are in the process of setting up
the 501(c) 3 - Virtual Worlds Research Foundation which incurs its own
costs.

Nonetheless, so far i've paid for it out of my own pocket but given
the low cost of production and upkeep of the journal once it has
picked up momentum we are focusing on institutional sponsorships and
personal donations. We've already had one research group commit to at
least 1k per year and several others that are mulling it over
and since my editors do little, i'm going to lean on them to kick in a
little. The second revenue stream takes longer because you are
building brand and a collection of intellectual content. The CC
license still means its yours, despite other people can use it without
the horrible restrictions that groups like IEEE put on their material.

I think we can follow a similar path which means, you can turn the
material into books, edited, authored, etc and the brand becomes
increasingly worthwhile and can be leveraged into branding conferences
which can be an extremely profitable business, so, over the long run
it can work out quite well... in the short term, the costs are low, so
the sacrifices all around (with the exception of everyone's time) is
minimal.

In the science field it is normal to pay-to-publish, in social science
it isn't (and is taboo). I'm not sure where your field falls in the
spectrum.
SS journals are usually supported by associations, institutions, etc.
hmm... this is giving me a nasty idea. we've been mulling that over:
of instead of a vwr foundation open an open academic foundation (or
some similar name not already used) focused on providing the
infrastructure and model for doing precisely this. You are the 3rd
journal in as many weeks that i have touched base with that is
meandering through the same path. That is how it needs to be, there
needs to be some base of funding
That is why an open academic publishing foundation would be good;
could attract a block of funding from different companies and
foundations to fund the launch and maintenance of journals open-
access: no cost to publish, no cost to subscribe, no registration
required to view.