Open-process academic publishing.

Publishing and knowledge production in academia can be significantly improved if aspects of cooperative models developed in software and networking communities are adopted. The Open Access movement focuses on the openness of the final result. The most important attributes of the development of the Internet, the Web and their communication-cooperation tools is the openness of the entire process of production. The novelty that can take many forms is in the organizational structures, decision-making and cooperation. This paper argues that journals adopting a form of Open Process could benefit by increased quality of submissions and publications, faster and more responsive pace of research and by attracting more risk taking and innovative authors. Through open-process publishing and peer reviewing clearer structure and visibility of tasks could be achieved. Equally important could be the possible internal benefits for journal management: the recognition of the most important workers and decision making in their hands, easier and improved project management, attracting new volunteers and reducing the impact of counter-productive participants. If these changes were implemented well, such open-process journals would gain readership and reputation. A simple transition model is suggested: how to start with an email list and proper cultural safeguards. Gcommons.org, a more advanced solution, is a highly configurable Free Software platform that assists open processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]