Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Thursday, April 29, 2004

Wellcome trust releases report pointing to OA's cost-effectiveness

Costs and Business Models in Scientific Research Publishing. The Wellcome Trust commissioned and today announced the publication of a new study probing publishing costs of scientific journals, both those with subscription models and OA author-pay models. The press release states open access models could be cheaper by as much as 30 per cent and that OA is "economically viable" and "sustainable". "The report suggests that a £1100 payment by the author would allow a workable, high quality and sustainable publishing model. This compares to an average of £1500 to publish a paper under the traditional system." This is yet another huge show of support from a major research funding body. (Source: Robert Terry, Wellcome Trust, posting to American Scientist Open Access Forum)