Susan Mayor, Research councils' requirements could bankrupt academic journals, BMJ, April 23, 2005. Excerpt: 'Journal publishers are concerned that a new proposal that requires all researchers who receive public research funding to post their results on publicly accessible electronic databases will lead to the financial collapse of many academic journals. The proposal is in a consultation document from the Research Councils UK, which represents the eight research councils in the United Kingdom, including the Medical Research Council....The document says that ideas and knowledge derived from research funded with public money must be made available and accessible for public use, interrogation, and scrutiny, as widely, rapidly, and effectively as practicable. To achieve this, it proposes that research councils require any researcher awarded a grant from 1 October 2005 to deposit any resulting journal article or conference "in an appropriate e-print repository (either institutional or subject-based), wherever such a repository is available to the award-holder." This would mean that universities and other research institutions would each have an electronic archive of all research done by its staff. Researchers would provide a copy of any paper accepted for publication for the electronic archive. Alex Williamson, publishing director of BMJ Journals, and a council member of the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers said, "If this proposal were to go through, it would seriously prejudice the existing subscription based model for journals. If researchers had to put their research on electronic databases, a lot of people would stop subscriptions to journals, which would then go broke and close."...The consensus statement was developed by representatives from the member research councils and representatives from the funding councils, the Consortium of University and Research Libraries, the British Library, the Wellcome Trust, and publishers (commercial, not for profit, subscription based, and open access). It is currently being circulated for comment from a range of groups, including vice chancellors of universities, with plans to publish the final statement in May this year. The Research Councils UK said that it was unable to comment on the concerns of publishers until its consultation was complete.' (Thanks to ScieCom.)
(PS: This is the first public glimpse of the terms of the RCUK policy and confirms rumors that it will mandate OA to publicly-funded research. Mayor mistakenly says that the full policy is online at the RCUK web site. It isn't and won't be until mid-May.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 4/27/2005 12:17:00 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.
