Stephen Pincock, Royal Soc[iety] down on open access, TheScientist, March 8, 2004. Summarizing the Royal Society's skeptical views on OA journals and the implications of funding them for British science, as well as some responses around the UK to the Royal Society's views. Excerpt: "The society, Britain's national science academy, is due to give evidence on Monday (March 8) to a hearing of the House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology....The Royal Society's view is at odds with that of the Wellcome Trust, which distributed £400 million to the life sciences this year in funding grants. European and US institutions have also supported the open access movement....The society itself publishes journals on a subscription basis, and [John] Enderby [Royal Society Vice President] added: 'At the Royal Society, 92% of our income from journal subscriptions is generated overseas, representing a significant injection of cash for UK science because, as a learned society, any surplus generated is used to support scientific research'....[BioMed Central President Jan] Velterop expressed disappointment at what he called the Royal Society's 'parochial view' of science. 'Learned societies use their surpluses well, no doubt, but they should realize that their surpluses effectively represent subsidies from institutions and countries who may not be able to afford their subscriptions much longer, and that the UK institution libraries subsidize many similar scholarly societies abroad (rarely, though, in developing countries), rather cancelling out the perceived financial benefits for the UK,' he said."
Posted by
Peter Suber at 3/08/2004 09:54:00 PM.
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.
