The reviews are just a part of the comprehensive entirely free PW web site. Reviews are available from 1987 only, but there are 132,000 of them....
The management of Publishers Weekly apparently recognized that there is not much to loose by making the review collection, and the entire journal open access. After all, Publishers Weekly is included in many of the largest and most widely subscribed databases of ProQuest, Thomson Gale and EBSCO at least for the past ten years in full text. Most of the PW reviews are also available in Amazon’s book records, and in a number of other fully or partially open access databases.
It was the right move by PW to change to the open access model (and probably making more money from click-through ads than from the earlier required subscription fees). I would not be surprised if ALA would come to the same conclusion about the Booklist Online service when it turns out to be a hard sell for the price.
PS: The review includes links to other collections of OA book reviews.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 11/16/2006 01:52:00 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.
