Few would question that the aim of the Open Access (OA) Movement — to make all research papers freely available on the Web — is a laudable one. OA will considerably benefit the research process, and maximise the use of public funds. It was encouraging therefore to see the topic of OA aired in a number of presentations at the recent Internet Librarian International (ILI) [PS: London, October 16-17, 2006]. Listening to them, however, I found myself wondering how many acts of selfishness stand between us and OA....
I was interested, therefore, to hear at ILI the opinions of someone with a less partisan view; the view, moreover, of an economist. For the conference keynote was given by Danny Quah, professor of economics at the prestigious London School of Economics....
Where economists would expect an increase in supply to have caused prices to decrease, the rapid growth in published research we have seen over the past several decades has led to an increase in the price of scholarly journals....Even more puzzling, he added, this has occurred during a period of unprecedented advances in the technology for distributing information....
Quah's talk spurred me to think about the various actors in the OA drama, and their different motivations. Might we, I wondered, reach a better understanding of the problems besetting the scholarly journal market if we considered the motivations of the different actors, and the selfish actions that drive the market? Could this also alert us to the dangers ahead, and help us see what needs to be done? ...
This is just Poynder's introduction to his own, much longer reflections on the state of OA. His take is too long to excerpt and I'll want more time before I feel confident in offering a summary. But if you want my unconfident, very brief summary today, I'd say his thesis is that the stakeholders, by following their narrow or short-term self-interests, have created a dysfunctional journal publishing system and a self-limiting OA movement. I see more grounds for hope than he does, perhaps many more. But if I were convening a meeting on long-term strategy, I'd assign this article in its entirety as background reading. I encourage you to read it for the same reason.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 11/21/2006 09:50:00 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.
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.
