Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Friday, February 20, 2004

Elsevier CEO criticizes OA

Dan Milmo, Reed forced to bite the free access bullet, The Guardian, February 20, 2004. Excerpt: "Reed Elsevier chief executive Crispin Davis issued a robust defence yesterday of the media group's scientific publishing arm as it faces a growing threat from free access internet sites....Mr Davis said the rival business model accounted for only 1% of the market and had not proved its viability. He added that, by limiting itself to online publishing, open access excluded 30% of global institutions using scientific research. 'Open access has the opposite impact. It reduces accessibility to global content.'...It is quite clear that, for research universities such as Oxford and Cambridge, the cost for them will go up quite significantly.'" (PS: A breathtaking example of FUD. I'm delighted to let the question turn on whether OA widens or narrows access and whether it raises or lowers costs for universities.)