Michael Keller has publicly released his comment on the NIH plan. Keller is the Stanford University Librarian and the Publisher of HighWire Press and Stanford University Press. Excerpt: 'Should any of those American not for profit societies fail or weaken enough [from lost subscriptions] to jettison their publishing roles, the likely beneficiaries of such failure are the European for profit stm publishers and elements of the NIH's own bureaucracy. Such an outcome would have the dangerous and expensive prospect of one or perhaps both worst case scenarios: 1. the European for profit publishing industries would control more of the literature of stm and thus expand their monopolistic practices as well as charging more for access to the very stm literature the NIH proposal intends to affect; 2. the U.S. government would be taking over more responsibility for publishing de novo stm articles, thus further asserting control over research topics and methods....Additionally, the NIH proposal flies in the face of considerable innovation and enormously improved public access already undertaken by numerous publishers receiving services from HighWire Press, a not for profit, enterprise of the Stanford University Libraries.'
(PS: Two quick replies. (1) There are reasons to think that the NIH plan would not undercut journal subscriptions. But if they did, it is much more likely that ailing journals would convert to one or another OA model than that NIH would take on the peer-review functions of a publisher. (2) To me, OA through Highwire Press or through institutional repositories would be a perfectly acceptable amendment or enhancement to the NIH plan. But if it's on the same terms as OA through PMC, then the effect on journal subscriptions would not change. If it's not on the same terms, then the debate should focus on the terms, not the venue.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 11/18/2004 08:32:00 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.
