The same issue of The Lancet (July 3, 2004) with the editorial on the new access policy contains two letters to the editor about OA. (1) Michael Held of the Rockefeller University Press clarifies that his earlier critical comments were directed at the Sabo bill, not at OA as such. "All of our content [at RUP] becomes free 6 months after the date of publication, and, for 142 countries, is free from the start. Additionally, we enthusiastically support open-access experiments, and will be watching their results carefully for signs of financial sustainability. We salute PLoS for their bold experiment, and wish them every success." (2) Helen Doyle and Andy Gass of PLoS explain that PLoS waives its processing fee for anyone who asks. "PLoS waives publication fees for...authors whether they come from New York or Nairobi. If the peer-review process judges that an article is worthy of publication in a PLoS journal, then the paper will be published irrespective of the author's ability to pay. To obtain a fee waiver, authors are asked simply to state the amount, if any, they can pay should their paper be accepted for publication in a PLoS journal; they are not required to justify this with any explanation about their funding, national origin, or institutional affiliation."
Posted by
Peter Suber at 7/06/2004 03:34:00 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.
