Chapter 4: Associations
In his pursuit of open access, Willinsky argues that associations, which are designed to provide a focused venue for members, should rethink their decision to turn publications over to commercial publishers. Associations should consider moving their journals to digital spaces instead of asking members to pay fees that support an unnecessary print culture.
In appendix B, Willinsky provides the budgets of several associations; he provides the total revenues, publication revenues, royalties, and publication costs. He then admits that a progression from print to online journals will take time due to a loss of revenue from subscriptions, but he does provide several options to ease the transition. One suggestion is to build a cooperative that asks libraries to share with associations the already existing infrastructures, which would provide the associations with open source journal management and publication systems (64). Willinsky reiterates, in this chapter and throughout the text, that moving journals to online sites increases readership and offers access to institutions and people that may not be able to afford subscription fees.
Willinsky’s argument that associations move to e-journals is commendable and important. However, his colleagues may be right: “scholarly associations cannot consider dropping print editions,” even if revenue wasn’t the issue. Members and institutions still rely (and fondly so) on printed texts, an issue Willinsky could address more directly considering his own work appears in print form.