William J. Lindblad, Why is open access publishing the answer?, Wound Repair and Regeneration 12(4), 395-396 (July/August 2004). (Access restricted to subscribers.) Lindblad looks with a wary eye on OA publishing, pointing out such objections as the author-pays model, whether sufficient attention will be given to editing, the costs of archiving and maintaining and migrating to stable electronic archives, and whether authors, in keeping copyright, are ready to "pursue infringement." In contrast, Lindblad holds up societies such as his own and argues that authors assigning copyright to societies is better than giving it to commercial publishers. Yet he does not acknowledge that any transfer of copyright imposes restrictions on the author and readers, even as some (APS, for example) may be more liberal than others. Lindblad concludes by saying that his journals give authors for free what open access journals would make them pay for, and provide more stability. "So where is the need for open-access publishing?" he asks rhetorically.
Posted by
Garrett at 7/22/2004 05:19:00 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.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
