EMBO reports 5, 1, 1 (2004) (Access restricted to subscribers.) Frank Gannon, editor of EMBO Journal, maintains that his society makes money ethically from its publishing activities, because "we use this money exclusively for our community," citing programs that support scientists in developing countries, young investigators, fellowships for women scientists among others. He argues that scientific societies must make a profit to sustain such activities. Furthermore, Gannon states that the SPARC journals "have not yet succeeded in their goal of replacing" their better-known commercial counterparts and that open access publishing "is at too early a stage of implementation to make predictions about its economic viability." The EMBO publications, he writes, allow author retention of copyright and author self-archiving, and are free to scientists in developing countries and universally accessible after a one year embargo. Unfortunately, Gannon resorts to name-calling, labeling proponents of open access publishing "evangelists" and "self-righteous scientists," which undermines his reasonable point, "there are many different ways to serve the scientific community."
Posted by
Garrett at 1/06/2004 10:32:00 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.
