Peter Gölitz, Open Access and Angewandte Chemie, Angewandte Chemie, December 15, 2004. An editorial. Excerpt: 'The German Chemical Society (Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker, GDCh), the owner of Angewandte Chemie, has recently discussed open access and issued an official statement... Isn't free access to food, medication, and public transport an even more justifiable goal?... Justifiably, many scientists and librarians feel frustrated with the high prices of some, but by no means all, journals, which sometimes are even of a poor quality....[T]here are obviously enough customers/libraries who are prepared to pay the price and so contribute to the "fat profits of the big publishers". Is such indignation not hypocritical when one lives in a profit-driven society?...Aren't there enough forums for scientific discourse or do the current journals somehow prevent this discourse? Is there insufficient information, or are we actually drowning in it? When the secondary literature or a reference leads one to an article that one wants to read, is it really that difficult to obtain, even when the local library does not have it? Please have your own answers to these questions....In the open access model the authors should pay for each published article, and amounts between €500 and €10000 per article were mentioned....It is clear that the open access model would result in more "information management", "cash-flow control", and blatantly "more bureaucracy"....If journal editors are to be paid directly by the authors for each accepted manuscript, then the "economization of the individual article" will be the order of the day. And it is naive to believe that the fact that editors are paid a determined amount of money by the author for each accepted article will not have an influence on the decision.'
Here are some English-language excerpts from the GDCh statement on OA, reprinted in the sidebar to Gölitz's editorial. The statement is skeptical but constructive and doesn't begin to justify Gölitz's deep misunderstandings of OA journals. 'Open access is an interesting and important topic in the discussions on the future of scientific publishing. However, at this point in time there are still risks, open questions, and challenges associated with this model. Further experience must be gained in open access, or indeed any other new models, before a balanced opinion can be made regarding the advantages of these approaches over the traditional processes. The Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (German Chemical Society, GDCh) will monitor future developments closely and will be open to results from discussions on this issue. The GDCh will participate actively and constructively in such discussions to ensure that any transitions in scientific publishing are carried out fairly so that the needs of all those involved are met and that business models are adopted to reflect the new electronic publishing tools. Regardless of the open access debate, the GDCh appeals to all its members to avoid submission of their scientific papers to overpriced journals.'
Posted by
Peter Suber at 12/17/2004 10:19:00 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.
