Two days ago, BMCannounced that Pfizer had set up a fund to pay publication fees for scientists from developing countries who publish in BMC journals. (See my blog post and comments.) A short article in yesterday's Pharma Times adds a new detail: Pfizer also bought a BMC institutional membership to cover its own scientists when they publish in BMC journals.
Comments
Think about the Pfizer membership in light of the supposed free-rider problem. Publishers have often argued that drug companies will become free riders in an OA world: consuming OA literature without paying the costs of producing it. In a subscription world, drug companies pay for access just like universities; but because industry scientists publish less than university scientists, drug companies would pay fewer author-side publication fees than universities and shift more of the cost burden to universities. We don't know whether the Pfizer membership arose from bean counting (to save money on BMC fees) or philanthropy (to support BMC and OA regardless of actual fees incurred by Pfizer scientists), but it tends to answer the objection that a transition to OA means relinquishing the pharma contribution to the costs of peer-reviewed publication.
BTW, my argument against the free-rider problem has always been (1) that it only arises when someone ought to pay but isn't paying, which is never the case for OA literature; (2) that it confuses the problem of shirking an obligation with the problem of leaving money on the table, e.g. from pharma companies which formerly bought subscriptions; and (3) that leaving money on the table, within limits, is survivable if OA publishing costs less than what we now spend on TA publishing.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 5/07/2009 09:26:00 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.
