Music Scholars and Open Access Publishing

Interviews with twenty-one music scholars in various subdisciplines explored experiences and motivations that led them to publish their work OA as well as factors that have discouraged them from doing so. Each participant discussed the availability of OA publishing opportunities in their subdisciplines of music, how these are perceived, how they are evolving, and how they compare to opportunities in other disciplines. Participants also spoke to ways in which institutions support or value OA. The authors found that perspectives on OA publishing among music scholars vary considerably, ranging from those who identify as “an evangelist for open access” to those who are “totally against it.” Several issues stand out for their interactions with OA publishing: green OA, peer review, pedagogy vs. “serious” scholarship, digital humanities, prestige publishing, tenure and promotion, and employment status. For OA to be sustainable, it will need infrastructure and systems that reward reviewers, editors, and authors for their labor. The authors hope that this paper will foster conversations within the community of music scholars about the desirability of such changes