Stephan Arndt, Open access and article processing charges, Substance Abuse, Treatment, Prevention, and Policy, July 17, 2006. An editorial in the inaugural issue of a new OA journal from BMC. Excerpt:
Substance Abuse, Treatment, Prevention, and Policy uses a medium that provides the
broadest possible worldwide readership. Articles can be freely read by anyone in the
world without charge. Since the articles published here will hopefully help inform policy this is exactly the right target.
The traditional strategy for disseminating work has been to publish in paper journals that
charge the readers directly or through society memberships. Typically, academicians
subscribe to a few journals within their own specialized area. Articles within those
journals are often aimed to a narrow audience and consequently, the articles are not
widely read outside the particular field. Open access is an alternative.
Material in open access journals is equally available to anyone, anywhere free of charge
at the time of publication. This fact alone is a huge advantage for this journal and for the
authors. Since we aim to affect policy, the work here absolutely has to cross over and
breakdown boundaries. Readers have access to this journal regardless of the financial
resources of their region, libraries, or universities. Furthermore, common web searches
such as through Google or Yahoo will point to relevant and freely accessible papers
within the journal.
There are other advantages....
Posted by
Peter Suber at 7/19/2006 11:18:00 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.
