Revisiting “the 1990s debutante”: Scholar‐led publishing and the prehistory of the open access movement

Samuel A. Moore

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Citations (Scopus)
50 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The movement for open access publishing (OA) is often said to have its roots inthe scientific disciplines, having been popularized by scientific publishers and for-malized through a range of top-down policy interventions. But there is an often-neglected prehistory of OA that can be found in the early DIY publishers of the late1980s and early 1990s. Managed entirely by working academics, these journalspublished research in the humanities and social sciences and stand out for theirunique set of motivations and practices. This article explores this separate lineagein the history of the OA movement through a critical-theoretical analysis of themotivations and practices of the early scholar-led publishers. Alongside showingthe involvement of the humanities and social sciences in the formation of OA, theanalysis reveals the importance that these journals placed on experimental prac-tices, critique of commercial publishing, and the desire to reach new audiences.Understood in today's context, this research is significant for adding complexity tothe history of OA, which policymakers, advocates, and publishing scholars shouldkeep in mind as OA goes mainstream.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)856-866
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of the Association for Information Science and Technology
Volume71
Issue number7
Early online date8 Oct 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jul 2020
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Moore, SA 2019, 'Revisiting “the 1990s debutante”: Scholar‐led publishing and the prehistory of the open access movement' Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, vol. (In-press), pp. (In-press).which has been published in final form at https://asistdl.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/asi.24306. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Information Systems
  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Information Systems and Management
  • Library and Information Sciences

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