Alicia Salaz, vice provost and university librarian at the University of Oregon, writes in Katina about the failures of both the APC model and the so-called “transformative agreements” for open access journal publishing. She argues that universities need to invest in new mission-driven, academy-owned alternatives for knowledge sharing — like Knowledge Commons.
As she notes, the University of Oregon became a sustaining member of Knowledge Commons in 2025, but I love that she describes that relationship as an investment in our work. Our goal is to provide the shared infrastructure that can support a wide range of scholar-led experiments in new models for research collaboration and communication. The PRCA work we’re undertaking right now is just one part of our larger goal: breaking the stranglehold that the economics of journal publishing holds over the work that we do individually and collectively in the academy.
As Alicia notes, one key component of that work also requires breaking the stranglehold that what I have elsewhere referred to (with hat-tip to Chuck Henry) as “the debilitating mathematics of prestige,” the rankings and impact factors and assessment practices that drive researchers to publish in the formats and venues that they believe will best improve their stature in their institutions and their fields. There’s much more to be said about that, but for now I just want to note that this emphasis on prestige is not eternal, but has in fact been constructed, and so can be torn down.
For now, though, I want to emphasize our gratitude to Alicia and the University of Oregon Libraries for their investment in our work and the better future we envision. If you care about that future — an open, equitable, community-governed future for research communication — please urge your institution to join us as well. It’s going to take all of us to make a different future possible.