This letter from Bas Savenije, Chair, SPARC Europe, to Frank Gannon, executive director of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), was forwarded to LIBLICENSE-L, and merits mention here, especially in light of Gannon's editorial from earlier this month in which he discussed the ethics of journal subscription profits. (See earlier posting on the latter.) Savenije decries EMBO's "bundling" the EMBO Journal and EMBO Reports in one subscription, a site license based on an institution's number of full-time employees and says that it amounts to doubling the subscription costs for most libraries. In 2003, Nature Publishing Group assumed publication of EMBO Reports and now publishes the EMBO Journal for the society. In its annual report from 2002 (p.34), EMBO says the move to NPG "was motivated by the wish to reach the broadest possible audience in the current age of electronic media," but Savenjie points out that the new subscription model, in face of tightening academic budgets, may likely reduce the journal's audience and impact. Furthermore, he notes the irony of EMBO's actions in the face of other publishers experiments with alternative subscription models, including open access, and the increased support of funding bodies in the U.S. and Europe for such initatives. Lastly, Savenije remarks the possibility that EMBO be a leader in the open access movement and "reconsider this excessive and damaging price rise.) (Source: Bernd-Christoph Kämper via LIBLICENSE-L mailing list)
Posted by
Garrett at 1/08/2004 02:50:00 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.
