November 2012

On November 9 and 10, AERA hosted a conference on open access publishing in the social sciences. This working conference brought together representatives from social science associations, libraries, university presses, and publishing houses, as well as researchers and journal editors, to explore issues of central importance in open access publishing and the critical role of social science associations in that process. Discussions focused on the role of scholarly society publishing, funding models for open access publishing in the social sciences, and the impact of open access publishing on peer review, citations, public engagement, and the dissemination of scholarly work.

The meeting helped to foster a greater understanding of the issues, consequences, and opportunities associated with open access publishing. The result of the conference will be a working paper to inform scholarly societies contemplating or pursuing open access. The paper will also be of interest to those engaged in forward thinking about scholarly publishing, knowledge accessibility, and knowledge dissemination—whether in the journal publishing, library, or author/reader communities.