I’ll keep this one relatively short, as it’s about more direct appreciation of the gold OA research: namely, money. I’ve already responded to two people who might, conceivably, have money available for this research (neither one even suggested that it could happen), giving the amount I’d want–so I might as well be up-front and provide the options here.
1. The Donations + Purchases Route: Milestones
- $1,500 total: the 2011-2014 spreadsheet, anonymized slightly, goes up on figshare.
- $2,500 total: I give serious thought to renewing the project for 2015 data, using DOAJ’s journal list as of the first week of 2016.
- $5,000 total: I’d definitely do the 2011-2015 version and make the spreadsheet available on figshare.
That total includes donations to Cites & Insights since the 2011-2014 project was announced and net proceeds from sales of all of my self-published books since September 1, 2015 (and, for that matter, the honorarium portion of expenses-paid speaking engagements related to this work, but I’m not holding my breath for any of those).
As previously noted, through right now, we’re more than one-third of the way but less than halfway to the first milestone.
(If the second milestone isn’t reached by April 2016, I don’t think this would happen–I’d have moved on to other things by then.)
2. Direct Grant Funding or Consulting Contract: Annual Costs
This is the set of numbers I sent back to two interested parties. It would cover another round of research, including rechecking APC status and amount for all listed journals, tweaking the grading criteria slightly, writing up the research, and making the anonymized spreadsheet available on figshare and the PDF version of the results available for free. (The paperback version would be priced at very close to production costs, quite probably less than $10.)
My price would be, at minimum, $0.50 per journal in DOAJ in the first week of 2016, plus $1,000 for the analysis/writeup phase. Right now, that would come to about $6,332.
I’d be delighted to discuss this with any possible agency or agencies (actually, there’s one exception–not the one in Ohio–but I don’t think that’s likely to be an issue). If the money was secure before 2016, I could do some of the APC/site rechecking before 2016. If more discussion and tweaks are desired, the price might be higher.
Obviously, the sponsor(s) would or could have their names on the results or could even handle distribution.
3. Part-time Consulting Research
I believe this project will require at least 500 to 600 hours to do properly, so if somebody wanted to hire me as a quarter-time consulting researcher to carry on this project (for one or more years), I’d certainly consider it. (I’m assuming that nobody hiring a consultant or researcher in California pays less than $26,000/year, esp. since California minimum wage is likely to be $30,000 before too long.)
Obviously, I’d expect to discuss possible expansions and tweaks, and the agency could release the report under its name, with me credited somewhere.
Oh, one more thing:
4. Redoing the Beall’s Lists Investigation
That would cost a lot of money because it’s neither interesting nor fun nor, I believe, especially useful. If someone was determined, I’d consider it for $1 per journal within Beall’s lists plus $2,000 for analysis and writeup–that is, a minimum of $13,000 (and going up all the time!). But I’d probably turn it down even then: life really is too short.
[Oh, by the way: if you’re interested in funding this research, contact me at waltcrawford@gmail.com]
