David Malakoff, Scientific Societies Lay Out 'Free Access' Principles, Science Magazine, March 26, 2004 (accessible only to subscribers). Excerpt: "Nonprofit science publishers have felt besieged in recent years by both commercial competitors and open-access advocates. They say soaring prices for commercial journals have forced librarians to cancel some nonprofit titles, and they argue that a shift to an open-access business model would threaten revenues that support a host of other society activities, from meetings to training young scientists. Society officials note that they routinely give journals free to scientists in poor countries and immediately post many important papers. Most societies also release all technical content within a year. But those points have been drowned out by 'the noise being generated by open-access advocates and concerns about subscription prices,' says Martin Frank, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based American Physiological Society and a lead author of the DC Principles. The statement, which was signed by the publishers of 380 journals, is 'a spirited defense of the status quo,' says Johnson. But other analysts say that it sidesteps key issues, such as whether scientists can retain ownership of their papers." (Thanks to Alexei Koudinov.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 3/26/2004 08:40:00 AM.
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.
