Today, Pfizer announced an agreement with BioMed Central to launch an open access waiver fund which will support automatic waivers of publication fees for authors from low-income countries.
Thanks to the open access waiver fund, researchers in low-income countries can publish research articles in BioMed Central's open access journals without the need to pay a publication fee.
Speaking of the agreement Dr Jack Watters, Vice President, Pfizer External Medical Affairs said "Pfizer's support for open access publishing is driven by a recognition of the wide benefits of global access to the latest research results, and the crucial role that open access journals can play in the communication of those results. In addition, we feel that it is critically important that the benefits of scientific publication are extended to all scientists who do quality research, and that providing this access will promote much-needed recognition of research conducted in developing countries.
Matthew Cockerill, BioMed Central's Managing Director, commented: "Researchers working in low-income countries have been strong supporters of open access publishing. Many of BioMed Central's most successful journals such as Malaria Journal and BMC Public Health, focus on issues of strong relevance to developing countries and publish many articles from these countries. BioMed Central's policy of automatic waivers for low-income countries ensures that researchers based in these countries will face no financial barrier to publishing and sharing their work in a way that makes it globally accessible."
Comments
The pharma industry needs access to peer-reviewed biomedical research and (like universities) complains about skyrocketing TA journal prices. It should be supporting OA biomed journals, as it is here, and should be in the forefront of the campaign to save the NIH policy from the Conyers bill and publishing lobby. The industry has its own access issues, but that shouldn't prevent it from supporting OA to research literature or prevent OA proponents from praising pharma support when it arrives.
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.
