Publishers don't like policies from government, research funders or institutions mandating OA through repository self-archiving because, ironically, these make it more likely that authors will use the self-archiving clauses that most publishers now accept. Still, it gets rather tiring to keep reading the same publisher refrain from any policy initiative - that it will harm business models, cause journal subscriptions to be cancelled, etc. - as in this example. What is the real problem?
Publishers are burying the case for exclusivity beneath speculation on business models and revenues because they know the legislators they oppose won't buy their case otherwise, and neither should anyone else....
Coincidentally, the chance to test this arose with a posting to the liblicense list by Peter Banks, former journal publisher and now industry consultant. Banks appeared to say that OA, especially self-archiving in repositories, would lead to the end of peer review as performed by publishers....In a follow-up message he raised the prospect that nonprofit and for-profit publishers might "cease providing traditional peer review services."....Banks offered a thoughtful and somewhat surprising suggestion, but which is consistent with the consequence of ending peer review, the end of conventional journals: "In the face of mandated OA, publishers should move toward a new business that has a positive ROI. This will probably involve providing context, rather than content. That is, under mandated OA, the business of publishing will no longer be creating quality content, but aggregating it and filtering it from what is freely available on the Web. It is separating the small amount of wheat from the great quantity of chaff." ...
The point is that peer review is not a bargaining tool. Its role is equally pivotal for authors and publishers. If publishers give up exclusivity, will authors have to forego journal peer review? Simply, no.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 11/03/2006 12:03:00 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.
