Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Wednesday, November 19, 2008

More on green v. gold OA

John Harnad, Approaches to Open Access in Scientific Publishing, a preprint forthcoming in Physics World, self-archived November 19, 2008.  (Note that this is John, not Stevan, Harnad.) 

Abstract:   Approaches to scientific journal publishing that provide free access to all readers are challenging the standard subscription-based model. But in domains that have a well-functioning system of publicly accessible preprint repositories like arXiv, Open Access is already effectively available. In physics, such repositories have long coexisted constructively with refereed, subscription based journals. Trying to replace this by a system based on journals whose revenue is derived primarily from fees charged to authors is unlikely to provide a better guarantee of Open Access, and may be in conflict with the maintenance of high quality standards.

From the conclusion:

...The research community provides not only the published material, but also the refereeing services that, with distribution, form the main “value-added” that journals offer. It is therefore up to its members to make the choices, and exert the necessary pressure to assure that they are beneficiaries of transformations in scientific publishing that are occurring as a result of evolution in technology and consumer reaction against inflated subscription prices.

Meanwhile, at least in most branches of physics, mathematics, computer science and some other domains, the benefits of Open Access will continue to be adequately provided by widely used repositories such as arXiv. Other fields seeking to develop effective vehicles for Open Access could do well to first consider such an approach, where preprint/postprint repositories have long been seen to coexist constructively with refereed journals, providing in a complementary fashion for rapid dissemination, universal access, assurance of quality standards and long-term preservation of the results of scientific research.