Katie Mantell, UK science publishers give open-access warning, SciDev.Net, March 5, 2004. On Monday's testimony by the large commercial publishers before the UK House of Commons Science and Technology Committee. Excerpt: "Some of Britain's leading scientific publishers have warned a parliamentary inquiry that open-access publishing could undermine the integrity of the world's top journals. They say that open-access models --in which journals give free access to their content but charge authors to publish research-- could reduce editorial standards. This is because many scientists would not be able to afford the high costs required to cover editorial processing and production costs in top journals. As a result, journals would be forced to publish lower-quality papers, or favour more wealthy authors." Quoting Crispin Davis, CEO of Elsevier: "We think that the present model has served the scientific community very well --people often underestimate that." (PS: Will OA journals exclude the poor? No. Will they be forced to publish lower-quality papers or favor more wealthy authors? No. Has the present model served the scientific community well? No.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 3/05/2004 09:05:00 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.
