The January 5 issue of Chemical and Engineering News includes an introductory message from ACS president Charles P. Casey. Among other concerns for ACS and the chemical community, on pages 4-5, Casey comments on rising journal costs for libraries and the question of open access. He cites the comparative value of ACS journals in terms of price, pagination and impact factor. Regarding open access, Casey questions the stability of PLoS, implying that lack of economic viability will jeopardize archival status of these publications. He dismisses the Sabo bill, saying that requiring open access for government-funded research "would effectively remove copyright protection for ACS and other scientific journals" and would tilt influence "toward the open access model and would fatally damage publications of scientific societies." Casey's remedy would be "electronic journals from scientific societies ... made available at reasonable costs," and he urges the chemistry community to push commercial publishers towards reducing their prices, especially by reconsidering their contributions to such publications. (Source: The (sci-tech) Library Question)
Posted by
Garrett at 1/07/2004 06:11:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
