"Using a Tetradic Network Method and a Transaction Cost Economic Analysis to Illustrate an Economic Model for an Open-Access Medical Journal"

"Using a Tetradic Network Method and a Transaction Cost Economic Analysis to Illustrate an Economic Model for an Open-Access Medical Journal" was presented at the Public Knowledge Project conference on July 12, 2007 at the SFU Harbour Centre, Vancouver, Canada. The presenter, Dr. Michael Mills, Ph.D., MSPH from the University of Louisville shared some of the challenges that scholarly publishing is facing today. He identified the money and profit associated with access to scholarly information as the current crisis, and the need for a revolution to address this crisis. The traditional scholarly publication model allows scientific societies and large publishers to have a substantial financial gain, whereas universities who finance scholarly research have to pay again to obtain access to published results. Mills suggests that scholars not surrender their copyrights and publish on-line. Those that hold the copyrights retain all the power in scholarly publishing. In Mills, Esterhay and Thornwill’s study, a Tetradic Network Technique (TNT) and a Transaction Cost Economic analysis (TCE) were applied to a traditional subscription-based, print medical journal, Medical Physics, and a web-based open-access medical journal, the Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics, identifying stakeholders and considering transaction and production costs. Production cost was found to be approximately the same for the traditional and open-access journal, however total transaction costs were shown to be reduced by a factor of 5-10 for the open-access journal. Tetradic Network Technique views the world as a tetrahedral (four components) complex adaptive network (TCAN), where each component can also be analysed as a TCAN – four components making up one component of a larger TCAN; and this process can continue indefinitely until desirable level of presicion:4X, 16X, 64X, and 256X… Starting from the top and circulating clockwise, the TNT model begins with Purpose → Inputs → Processes → Outputs. For the scholarly publication model: Libraries (dissemination of information) → Scholars (input research) → Societies (process and validation of research) → Publishers (output research).
Dissemination of knowledge is an integral part of scholarly activity. Transaction costs increase the cost of distribution of scholarly information. Lowering such costs would benefit everyone. Open-access is the way to go! Not only it drastically reduces transaction costs and increases dissemination of scholarly articles, but also allows scholars to retain their copyright, preventing obscurity.