Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Monday, December 15, 2008

Charging for access as penny-wise and pound-foolish

Interview with Andres Martin, new editor (January, 2008) of TheJournal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, November 2008.  Excerpt:

...[Normand Carrey]:  In a sense journals are becoming dinosaurs. With the internet everything is going electronic especially the open access journals. Can you tell me how you are addressing this challenge/opportunity?

[Andre Martin]:  ...As things now stand, full access to the Journal requires payment from non-subscribers. This policy may well prove penny-wise and pound-foolish, and is largely out of synch with other leading journals. As their experience has already demonstrated, the fees that would be lost to free downloads would be more than made up for by increased visibility, impact and circulation, and through compensating revenue from higher advertisement fees. At a minimum, the Journal could easily provide free online access in the developing world through the HINARI initiative of the World Health Organization....