What is SCOAP3 and what does it have to do with me?
SCOAP3 is the Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics (see [this] for more info). It is a mechanism for a field of science (in this case Particle Physics) to pay for its own publishing costs, rather than make the readers of its journals pay via subscriptions. In the SCOAP3 model, everyone involved in producing the literature of particle physics (universities, labs, and funding agencies) pays into a consortium (SCOAP3) which then pays publishers so that all articles in the field are Open Access.
No particle physics journal will have a subscription cost, and everyone can read any article published.
You can redirect the money that you save on subscriptions to SCOAP3 to pay for Open Access for the entire literature of Particle Physics.
As a physics/science library you will be realizing the savings from the lack of subscription costs for the Particle Physics journals, so it is only natural that you would be a contributor to SCOAP3. Clearly the cost of Open Access will be similar to the cost of subscriptions, because there won't be any new money in the system. Without your redirected money, it won't work....
Posted by
Peter Suber at 12/09/2007 08:25:00 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.
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.
