Consultants Clarke & Esposito were tasked with examining "the flow of information, in both directions (downstream and upstream), across the still emergent supply chain for OA monographs". Funded by the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the report was authored by Michael Clarke, Managing Partner at Clarke & Esposito and Laura Ricci, Consultant, Clarke & Esposito.
Their key findings include these:
Journal-based standards and models are a poor fit for OA books
The supply chain is built for paid access and incentives are aligned for paid access — not necessarily for OA
Distribution processes are complex, and do not easily handle changes to a title’s OA status.
Existent standards and practices are not yet firmly established for OA monographs and some are insufficient.
The large and growing number of platforms that deliver OA books to end users creates challenges for usage reporting.
The full text of the 44 page draft report may be found here.
